Wandering Soul
by MaskedAngel18
Summary: A girl wanders into town with hollows chasing her. Aizen wants something from her. Can Ichigo and the vizards prevent Aizen from getting her? Just what does he want from her? Rated T for just in case.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey there! I know, I said that I'm working on an FMA story. I am, I just decided to post this now. I actually have a Quizilla account where I originally published this story. I looked over it and decided to fix it up a bit and post it here, where there are more people. **__**I hope that you enjoy the story and don't forget to review so that I know what you think of the story.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I only own my OC whose name is, for now, unknown.**_

_Chapter 1_

_Run. Have to keep running._ That is what you told yourself as you run away from the howling creature behind you.

_I must not stop running._

…

Everything seemed normal in Karakura the arrancars first came there.

Since then the soul reapers arrived and Ichigo continues to go to school and killing hollows.

More hollows have been appearing for some reason and he could have sworn that he saw a girl, the same girl, at the sites where the hollows appeared minutes before they come, but he shook it off and thought nothing more of it. 

….

(At the Vizards' warehouse)

It is just another day with everyone just sitting around and Hiyori beating the crap out of Shinji occasionally. Suddenly, they all sense a hollow coming in their direction, and it appears to be chasing something.

"It's pretty close. Should we take care of it?" asks Mashiro.

"Someone else will get. Don't worry about it," says Lisa.

"Whatever that hollow is chasing, it's coming straight towards us," says Hachi.

Shinji decides to look outside to see what it is. He watches from the roof as a girl comes running up. She has long blond hair tied in a low ponytail and is wearong a worn out red jacket, jeans, and sneakers. She is also carrying a black backpack on her back.

As far as he can tell, she is just another human. She doesn't appear to have any spiritual preesure whatsoever.

She looks over her shoulder as if to see if something is following her.

When she looks back forward, she suddenly stops in front of the barrier. She slowly walks up to the barrier and puts her hand up to it. This shocks Shinji.

_She's not suppose to see the barrier or even sense it in the first place. Who is she?_ he thought.

Just then a hollow is heard howling not far from there.

She looks over her shoulder, then back at the barrier. She takes a deep breath, then slowly starts slipping her hand _through _the barrier.

Shinji is about to jump down to ask what she is doing when a hollow suddenly appears behind her. Without hesitanting, she pulls her hand back and jumps to the side.

The hollow runs straight into the barrier. Once the hollow is stun by the sudden collision, she starts running back the way she came.

She almost got out of there, when another hollow appears in front of her. She slides to a stop in front of it.

It starts to slam its paw down on her when suddenly deep gashes appear on its paw and ran all the way up to its shoulder.

It howls in pain and takes a couple of steps back. Shinji takes another look at the girl to see a faint outline of a shield disappearing around her.

At this point, all of the vizards come out to see what is happening. They are all thinking the same thing. _Who is she? _

She doesn't seem different from any other human except for the fact that she can see the hollows and the barrier surrounding the warehouse. But in that instant when the hollow attacked, spiritual pressure started pouring out of her in great amounts.

She stands there thinking what to do next. The first hollow doesn't try attacking after it saw what happened to the second one.

The two hollows are both wolf-like in appearance, so she figures she won't have much of a chance at outrunning them, and they can probably track her scent for a few miles if they are anything like wolves besides their appearance.

_I have to end it here, before they find me through these guys._ She knows that if things continue, someone is going to see that the wolves found her and then come for her.

She is not going to let that happen. She senses other people's presences on the roof of the warehouse with the barrier. They seem to be just watching. That doesn't matter to her, though, because she knows that they are not one of _them_.

Suddenly, the first hollow shoots its tongue out and wraps around her. The instant the tongues wraps around her completely, the hollow suddenly bursts in flames.

The hollow releases her and howls in pain as it disentigrates. Her eyes widen in shock.

_No. Not again._

The other hollow starts attacking her while she watches the other burn. As it attacks, a barrier surrounds her, blocking the attacks.

The hollow attacks relentlessly, not being injured by the barrier this time. She just stands there with a confused and frightened look on her face.

Suddenly, the shield starts cracking. She gasps and turns to look at the attacking hollow. She is at her limit. She is going to be caught.

The thought of that angers her.

_No! I refuse to end it here. I have to get out of here. There are no buts about it. They won't get me._

Just as the shield is about to burst, a blast of energy shoots out and strikes the hollow in the face. The hollow disappears along with the shield. The girl stands there panting, as if the shield took a lot out of her, which it did.

The vizards are contemplating what to do. Should they just leave her alone and go about their own business, or should they confront her.

Before they can come up with something, she is suddenly hit by something and slams against a wall of another warehouse about twenty yards away. She falls out of the hole in the wall, which is a few feet above the ground, and hits the ground. She looks up to see that her attacker is a third wolf-like hollow.

She can barely move as the hollow comes up and wraps its tail around her. 

Before the hollow did anything else, a hole suddenly appears a few feet away from it.

Out of the hole comes a pink-haired man with glasses and white clothing. There is no mistaking from his spiritual pressure that he is an arrancar. 

He slowly walks up to the hollow as it turns around and lifts the girl towards him. Surprisingly, she is still conscience. 

"My, my, you sure do know how to take a beating, don't you?" says the arrancar. She just glares at him. 

"Do you have any idea how hard you are to track? The rest of the Espada are getting angry from searching for you all the time." 

She just glares at him some more. She clearly hates him. 

"Your lucky that I'm the one that found you. Any of the others like Yammy would have beaten you to a pulp if they found you first." 

Her eyes narrow at his comment. 

"Don't worry. After all, Aizen-sama specifically told us to bring you to him alive and in one piece." 

The vizards all gasp at this comment. Aizen is looking for this girl? What for?

Shinji starts thinking. He doesn't know if she actually has any connection to Aizen. However, it is clear that Aizen has a plan that involves her. Who knows what Aizen will do to the poor girl.

The vizards don't really care about humans in general, but Shinji feels that they should do something. Especially if it ruins Aizen's plans. 

The arrancar raises his hand to her, only to be given a slight shock. He pulls his hand away. Her spiritual pressure has dropped so much, she can't fend for herself anymore. 

"That was weak for you. So you are finally at your limit now?" 

He raises his hand in front of her face. She tries to struggle out of the hollow's grasp as the hand starts glowing. 

"It is pointless to struggle now. Stop resisting now. Aizen-sama is waiting." 

And with that she passes out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey there! After looking at the traffic report on my stories and at how many more people story-alerted me, I guess quite a few people like my stories so far. The lack of reviews had me discouraged, but now I feel more confident. I could still use more reviews, though. I only have one in each story. But anyway, here is chapter 2! This chapter is a bit short****, but I will try to keep the rest of the chapters longer.**

**Oh! Before I forget, I said that I'm working on an FMA story. That is true, but I'm having trouble coming up with a name for my OC, though. If you guys could suggest some names to me, I will be grateful and be able to get the story out faster. Well, that's all I need to say, so time for the disaclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC whose name is currently unknown.**

Chapter 2

The vizards are all watching as this happens. They are debating about whether or not to save her since Aizen seems to have a plan that involves her.

Shinji can't help but feel that he has to do something. He doesn't know why Aizen wants her so much that he sends his Espada after her, but he'll probably have her go through hollowfication.

Shinji doesn't normally feel compelled to help humans, but he doesn't see how she deserves such a fate.

The arrancar turns around and is about to leave with the hollow and girl in tow. Shinji is about to jump down to attack the arrancar, when suddenly, something strikes down the hollow holding the girl just before the arrancar steps foot into the garganta.

The arrancar turns around just in time to see an orange-haired shinigami catching the girl before she hits the ground.

Ichigo gently lowers the girl he has seen throughout the town in the past couple of days onto the ground. Then he turns around to face the arrancar with Zangetsu pointed at him. 

"You're an arrancar, aren't you? What do you want with this girl?" says Ichigo.

The arrancar stares at Ichigo with a blank stare on his face. 

"What's she to you? I had the understanding that she didn't know anyone in this area, so no one would have notice if she disappeared." 

"I said want do you want with her?"

The arrancar then chuckles, as though there is something funny about that statement. 

"It's not about about what I want, it's about what Aizen-sama wants." 

Ichigo looks shocked at this statement.

_Aizen? What does he have to do with this girl?_

"What...did you say?"

The arrancar continues as though he didn't hear him. 

"If I had my way, she would be part of a couple of experiments that I would like to perform on her." 

"What does Aizen want with her?"

Ichigo is getting irritated by this arrancar. He needs answers, dammit!

The arrancar looks at Ichigo as though he is the one getting annoyed. 

"Do you think that he told us arrancar that when he gave the order? Now, I would fight you and be on my way, but in her current state, she may be caught in the battle and killed. Then I will have to face Aizen-sama's wrath about that, so I'll just leave for now. Oh, and can you tell her one thing for me when she wakes up?" 

Ichigo just glares at him. He doesn't know what this arrancar is going to say, but it can't be good. 

"Tell her that it is futile to keep running. Eventually, she will be brought to Aizen-sama and do what is told of her to do. It is inevitable. It is better if she just turns herself in now instead of just running around. The hollows get hungry chasing her all of the time, and there are so many souls for them to devour while they search. Be sure to tell her that the longer she runs, the more souls that get eaten because of her." 

Ichigo suddenly loses it and slashes a Getsuga Tensho at the arrancar. Unfortunately, the arrancar makes his escape through the garganta before the attack can hit him.

Ichigo glares at the space in front of him where the arrancar was just at, when he suddenly remembers the girl behind him.

He turns around as he puts Zangestu away and takes a look at her. She looks like she had been beaten badly. 

_She looks terrible._ _I need to get her to Orihime.__  
_

"Hey Ichigo, long time no see!" 

Ichigo looks up to see Shinji and what he assumes to be the other vizards standing on the roof of a warehouse that he didn't notice before. He glares at them.

_Not now!_

"I don't have time for you guys. I need to get her help!" 

"Who says that we can't help her?" 

"What?" 

Ichigo looks at Shinji as he jumps down and walks over to him. The other vizards are a bit surprised that he said they'll help her, but they shake it off soon enough as they figure it's because of her supposed connection to Aizen.

Shinji looks down at the girl in question. She looks pretty bad after being thrown against a building. He feels a twinge of guilt for not jumping down earlier to help her. 

"We have some questions for her anyway, so you might as well bring her inside." 

Ichigo looks down at her. She is in really bad shape, and Orihime is back at school. He can't just show back up with a girl beaten half to death without questions being raised by the other students and teachers. He sighs in defeat. 

"Fine." 

Ichigo picks her up gingerly and follows Shinji into the warehouse.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey there! I'm here with chapter 3! It took me a while to make this chapter longer than the last one, but I did it! I just had to stay up past 1:30 a.m.. Oh well. I don't really have anything else to say, so I'll just cut to the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC, whose name is not yet known.**

Chapter 3

Ichigo places the girl gently on the couch so that he won't accidentally cause her more pain. He already took her backpack off and places it on the ground right next to the couch.

Hachi comes over to the couch to see how badly she got beaten up.

Despite the fact that she had been slammed into the side of a building, she actually only has a couple of cuts and bruises.

Hachi starts to bandage the more serious cuts and then starts to explain to everyone else how she must have avoided more serious injuries.

"She must have put up a barrier right before she hit the building. However, since she was already weakened from the first two hollows, the barrier only prevented her from getting a few broken bones and a concussion. She will need to rest and let her wounds heal for a while."

Hachi finishes cleaning and dressing her wounds and then steps away from the couch.

Ichigo nods and turns his attention back to the girl. Even when she is unconscious, she has a troubled look on her face. He begins to wonder how long hollows have been hunting her down.

_She must have had a rough time for a while._

Shinji begins to think the same thing. Now that he has a closer look at her, he sees that she has smudges under her eyes from lack of sleep and her face looks worn. Her clothes are tattered, and her hair is a bit matted.

She must have been running from Aizen for a while. The poor thing.

Something about this girl troubles Shinji. Some part of his brain keeps nagging at him about her, but he doesn't know why.

Shinji decides to ignore the feeling and get down to the matter at hand.

"Hey Ichigo, do you know this girl?" asks Shinji.

Ichigo looks away from the girl and towards Shinji. 

"No. I think I seen her a couple of times though, and each time a hollow would show up in the area a few minutes later. Just what would Aizen want with her anyway?" 

"Don't know, but it probably has something to do with the way she took care of those hollows just now."

This takes Ichigo by surprise. 

"Wait, was she the one that released that huge amount of spiritual pressure earlier? But I didn't sense any spiritual pressure from her before."

Ichigo looks back at the girl.

"Just what is that about? How can she hide so much spiritual pressure?" 

"Well that's what we're gonna find out. But she's obviously better than you when it comes to concealing spiritual pressure." 

Ichigo gets a bit irritated about that last comment, but he can't argue with it either.

Suddenly, the girl starts to stir. Everyone focuses their attention on her as she slowly starts to wake up.

She doesn't know where she is at, just that she is indoors somewhere because the light isn't as bright as the sun that is shining outside. She also feels something that's a bit rigid with some cushioning underneath her.

She opens her eyes and waits for her vision to be unblurred before getting up.

She isn't aware of the nine other people in the room. She just knows that her legs are aching and that she feels pain everywhere.

_What happened?_

She slowly starts to remember the hollows that were chasing her, which explains her aching legs, as she sits up on the…couch?

Mashiro, being the hyper girl that she is, decides to walk up behind her while the disoriented girl is trying to figure out where she is and shout, "Finally! You're awake!"

The girl's brain is still trying to process as to what happened to the hollows when Mashiro sneaks up behind her.

Upon hearing Mashiro, she automatically goes into the defensive as she doesn't know that she is in a safe place yet.

Before anyone else can react, the girl suddenly throws her arms over her head protectively and a flash of light strikes out. Mashiro jumps back just in time to avoid the sudden attack and lands on her butt after tripping over her own feet.

Everyone else brace themselves for another attack. After getting over the initial shock of the attack, everyone sees a glowing orangish barrier surrounding her. She is still in the fetal position. 

After a while, the girl slowly retracts her arms from around her head to see what is going on. As she does this, the barrier starts to fade away. 

_She then notices that there are other people in the room._

_She sees eight other people in the room._

_"Hey! What was that for!"_

_The girl looks behind her to see a green-haired girl in a white jumpsuit with goggles and an orange scarf. Correction: she sees __nine__ other people in the room. And they all give of a different aura to her._

_The green-haired girl behind her appears to be very childish and possibly hyper._

_Note to self: don't give her sugar._

_ However, she also seems nice. At the very least, she doesn't mean her any harm._

_"Mashiro, don't sneak up behind people like that. You just scared her."_

_The girl turns to see who is talking to this "Mashiro"._

_It__ is the man wearing a muscle shirt with silver hair and two ear piercings in his ear. He seems to be a bit intimidating._

_She looks around at the other people in turn._

_There is a woman with black braided hair wearing something like a sailor suit with a short skirt._

_Really?_

_She is__n't exactly sure what to make of her, but somehow, she can guess what she reads. She has no idea how she knows, but she rather not know __why__ she knows._

_There are also two men standing next to each other. One has long, wavy blond hair and is wearing some sort of suit and the other has a star-shaped afro and is wearing a green jogging suit. They seem to be wondering who she is as much as she is wondering who they are. They don't seem to be dangerous though, just cautious._

_Towards the back of the group is a big man with pink hair wearing a skullcap. The term "gentle giant" crosses her mind. He seems to be a nice guy._

_Next, there is a short, blond girl in a red jumpsuit, who doesn't look too much older than the white-haired shinigami that she had seen around town. She appears to be violent and unforgiving. That is the impression she gets from the look on the blond girl's face. She takes note to not piss her off._

_Finally, there are the two guys that are right next to her. One of them is a lanky blond wearing what looks like a newspaper boy's hat, a black shirt with a white tie, and tan colored pants. He seems to be a bit troubled by something. She doesn't think he'll harm her, though._

_The other guy is the orange-haired shinigami that she has seen throughout town. He must have been the one that saved her from the arrancar that almost caught her, because she sensed him coming in fast right before she passed out._

_Despite her different takes on everyone's personalities, they all have something in common._

_They all have the spiritual pressure of a shinigami, with something different mixed in that makes them stand out from all of the regular shinigami. It feels….almost hollow-like._

_There is probably a long story behind that, but she isn't going to ask about it. Because she isn't going to stay. She is just going to get her wounds taken care of then disappear. She has to make her trail cold again before more hollows come for her._

_She isn't going to drag others into this. This is her problem._

The silver-haired man walks forward and asks,"Just who are you?" 

She turns her attention to him. As she noted before, the aura he gives off is a bit intimidating. She pushes that thought away as she ponders whether or not to trust them.

It's true that she didn't sense anything dangerous about them, with the exception of the violent-looking blond girl, but that doesn't mean that she can trust them right off the bat.

After all, _he_ had tried giving off a nice, warm aura when speaking to her to get her to trust him.

She knows she needs to tell them something, but how much should she tell them.

Shinji notices this conflict in those deep blue eyes of hers. She appears to be a cautious person. Shinji is sure that she won't tell them everything because she seems unsure of whether or not she can trust them.

Shinji can understand this. She was just attacked by an arrancar and a couple of hollows after all. Plus, she knows she is being hunted down. Of course she won't trust complete strangers as soon as she has met them. 

"Kensei! You're the one who's scaring her! You are so stupid!" shouts Mashiro. This pisses of Kensei. A vein pops up on his head as he starts to yell at Mashiro. Mashiro, in turn, starts rolling around on her back and fails her arms about.

The girl watches the scene before her with a bemused expression on her face.

Shinji is a bit exasperated that those two choose _now_ to have a fight, but is amused at the expression on the girl face as she watches the two herself.

Shinji decides to go ahead with the questioning. First, he needs to get her attention. 

"Well, you seemed a bit jumpy earlier." 

She tears her eyes away from the two that are bickering and focuses her attention on the lanky blond.

He now has a smile on his face, as though to keep her calm.

That smile doesn't stay long, however, as his face suddenly takes on a dead-pan look as he asks his first question. 

"How long have you been running from hollows like this?"

She continues to look at him, wondering how much she should say.

She doesn't want to tell them the whole story, but she doesn't see any problems in answering this question.

She looks down as she thinks back to when this whole mess started. 

"Almost a month now." 

_A month?_

Shinji is having a hard time believing that, not only did Aizen pursue a human for a month, but that she had stayed out of his grasp for so long.

Shinji brushes the shock away and continues. 

"Do you know what Aizen wants with you?" 

"Aizen?"

She doesn't know anyone by that name, but she has a hunch as to who they are talking about. 

"Wait, you don't know who Aizen is?"

Ichigo is surprised by this. She doesn't know what she has been dragged into.

This angers Ichigo.

_He just pu__lled an innocent human into this. The bastard!_

The girl looks at the orange-haired shinigami. He seems angry about something. She wonders why. Who is this Aizen and what is their relation with him? 

She looks around the couch and finally finds her backpack on the ground next to it.

She opens her backpack and pulls out her sketchbook and a drawing pencil. She opens her sketchbook to the next blank page and starts drawing.

Everyone sees this and becomes curious as to what she is doing.

Ichigo decides to try to explain to her who Aizen is. 

"Aizen is an ex-captain from Soul Society. He is a powerful shinigami that defected, sided with the hollows, and stole an item called the hogyouko. We don't know what he is planning but...Hey, are you listening?"

Ichigo is slightly annoyed that she doesn't appear to be listening and is focusing all of her attention on her drawing.

Shinji is really curious as to what it is she could be drawing.

"Hey!" Ichigo is getting really annoyed at the lack of response.

The girl pauses for a second to raise a finger up, signaling him to wait a minute.

Ichigo is still annoyed, but he complies nonetheless.

After a couple of minutes of silence and her sketching, she finally puts the pencil back in the backpack.

Finally, she speaks up. 

"Does this 'Aizen' person look like this?" 

She flips over her sketchbook to show everyone the drawing.

Everyone gasps. They are all shocked by what they are seeing.

The drawing is a detailed sketch of Aizen.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey there! Just so you know, I looked at chapter 3 after I posted it to see that, for some reason, a whole section had been itali****cized. I don't know what that was about, but I didn't do it. The only thing I italized was the note to self part. I don't know why the rest was italicized. Oh, and another thing, I switched from using the term 'spiritual pressure' to 'reiastu' because it is shorter and I like the term better.**

**Ok, now that that's over with, it's time for chapter 4!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way. I do, however, own my OC, whose name is currently unknown.**

Chapter 4

Everyone in the room tenses up. There is no mistaking the face on the sketchbook page.

It is definitely Aizen. There is just one question that everyone has... 

"How the hell do you know what he looks like? I thought you didn't know who he is?" asks Ichigo.

He is very confused. How the hell does a person know the appearance of someone they never met? 

"I don't." 

This throws everyone off. She actually doesn't know him?

Shinji doesn't know what to make of this. She doesn't know who he is, yet knows what he looks like. There better be an explanation for that. 

"Then how..." She holds up her finger, motioning for Ichigo to stop.

Ichigo complies yet again.

She takes a breath, and then she speaks. 

"Let me explain. About a month ago, I was just walking home minding my own business when this guy" she motions to the sketch "suddenly showed up. I knew right off the bat that he wasn't human, but he wasn't a hollow so I didn't know what to make of him at first. He came up to me and offered me a deal. He said that he could provide me training so that I could better control my powers." 

This catches Ichigo's attention.

"What powers is he talking about?"

She looks at Ichigo, then sighs. 

"For as long as I can remember, I have been able to see spirits. I am even able to speak with them. I would sometimes try to comfort some of them until they pass on. I was also able to see the shinigami that helped them passed on. Although I had never let on that I was able to see them, so I doubt that they notice my awareness of them. Later, I started seeing hollows." 

"Wait. How do you know about shinigami and hollows?" It's Shinji who asks this time. He is curious as to how a human, who has no affiliation with the Soul Society whatsoever, knows so much about shinigami.

The girl turns her attention to him and looks him in the eye. She seems unsure if she should continue, but she does anyway. 

"I sometimes listened to the conversations the shinigami have. They never noticed that I was able to hear them, so I managed to hear quite a bit about hollows just by pretending to be like the other humans around them."

She takes a breath before continuing. 

"After seeing how the hollows behaved around certain spirits and listening in more on the shinigami, I realized that the hollows crave those with high reiastu. I knew mine was pretty high as it was, but I didn't think much of it until hollows started tracking me. I managed to outrun them long enough for the shinigami to take care of them, but I knew I couldn't always count on their help. So, with a bit of practice, I manage to start hiding my reiastu. Since I was able to hide from the hollows, I just continued my life as usual. Until about a month ago..."

She stops speaking as her eyes look out into space, as though seeing something the others can't see.

She still remembers that day clearly. She had been on her way home when a man wearing white clothing suddenly appeared in front of her.

_She is walking down the street to her apartment. She is looking down at the ground in deep thought. She wants to help the souls that she sees get eaten by the hollows, but…_

"_I can help you."_

_She jumps. She looks up to see a man in white clothing. He has soft, brown hair and kind, gentle eyes. He is wearing a warm smile._

_She automatically feels better in his presence. But what does he mean by help?_

"_I have seen you before. You have potential if you are able to use your powers."_

_She tenses up. How does he know that about her? The shock is followed by helplessness. Use her powers? How can she when…_

"_I see. You are afraid of your powers. You don't want to hurt anyone because of your lack of control."_

_She looks at him with wide eyes. He is able to read her that easily? Who is he? She then looks down at the ground. He is right. She is afraid. She can't do anything without hurting others. She wishes that she is able to help them, though…_

_The man holds out his hand to her._

"_Come with me. I can teach you how to use your powers."_

_She snaps her head back up, unable to believe what she is hearing. Teach her how to use her powers? Can he? This is too good to be true. There has to be a catch to this, right?_

_As though sensing her thoughts, he speaks up again._

"_You don't have to worry about having to pay me back for any of the lessons, but there is something that I need you to do. That only you can do."_

_She can't believe this is actually happening._

She snaps out of her reverie as she remembers the nine people that are waiting for her to answer.

"This guy showed up and offered me a deal, as I had said. He said he would provide me training if I did a job for him after the training."

Shinji wonders what this job is, but he doubts that Aizen would have told her without her accepting the terms first. From the look on her face, Shinji thinks that she is only telling him the gist of what happened.

But, he decides not to press that matter and decides to go ahead and ask her about the job anyway. 

"Did he tell you what the job is?"

She looks to Shinji. She has no idea why she has said as much as she did. She didn't want to tell them anything at all because she doesn't know if they work for _him_ or if they are people who have nothing to do with the issue at all.

But, something about the blond guy makes her change her mind and tell everything. She knows that she never met him before, but something about him makes her think that she can trust him.

She just hopes that she isn't wrong about that. 

"No, he didn't say anything else about the job, just that he said that I would be protected from the hollows if I accepted. I said no to the deal." 

"Why did you say no?" asks Shinji.

He's glad that she refused Aizen, but he is curious as to why because Aizen managed to trick everyone so far and can come across as a nice and kind man if the illusion calls for it. Hell, he had the Gotei 13 under his control at one point, so why did she say no? Did Aizen actually slip up somewhere? 

She looks down at her lap, where she sees the drawing staring up at her. She thinks back to that moment when she felt something wrong.

_She can't believe her ears. All she has to do is one little thing and she can have control over her powers. She wouldn't have to worry about hurting others…_

_That is when she felt it. Something is amiss. Something about that guy isn't right._

_Yes, he looks kind and gentle and seems genuine about this deal, in fact, that is the very aura that he is giving off._

_But still, something is leaking through that. Something sinister. She doesn't want that to be true, but she can't ignore the feeling that there is something wrong with this picture._

_It's too strong for her to ignore it. Her instincts haven't failed her so far, so why not trust them now?_

_She doesn't want to do this. This is something that she has been looking for. But she must. She can feel it._

"_Sorry, I'll have to decline."_

_Surprise is apparent on his face, but she caught the flicker of annoyance in his eyes when he heard it._

"_Why? Don't you want control?"_

"_Yes, but I feel that this is something I need to do myself. Thanks for the offer though."_

_She still catches the flicker of annoyance and…anger? They flash through his eyes before saying, "I see. Sorry to have bothered you then."_

"_That's ok. Good-bye."_

_She walks away and senses him going in the opposite direction. She feels relieved, despite the opportunity she just gave up. She didn't realize that he was releasing such an oppressive amount of reiastu on her._

Her head is still in the past when she feels someone grab her hand.

She looks up to see the orange-haired shinigami. He wants her to continue. She closes her eyes and sighs. She decides to comply. 

"I don't really know. Something seemed...off about the guy. It was as though something in my mind told me that he couldn't be trusted. I said no acting upon instinct. As it turned out, my instincts seemed to have been right."

The last statement catches Ichigo's attention. 

"Why do you say that?" asks Ichigo. 

"Because the next day, my town was overflowing with hollows. And they were all looking for me." 

"How did you know that?" 

"Because they overlooked the souls they normally go after and started chasing me the moment they saw me."

Her hands tighten into fists around the drawing as she thinks back. 

"I was forced to run out of town. I managed to outrun the hollows and had since then learn to hide my reiastu completely. I had been on the run since. I am not a fool. I know that guy was the one who sent them. I just don't know what he wants with me."

Silence follows. Everyone is wondering what to do with her. Since Aizen plans to use her, they can't just let her go off on her own.

Shinji knows that the human shouldn't be any of the vizards' business, but he can't let Aizen's plans go the way he wants them to. Plus, there is something bugging him about the girl. He wants to find out what it is. 

"What's your name?" asks Ichigo.

The question snaps everyone out of their train of thought as they realize they didn't ask her that question before. 

She looks up as she snaps out of her reverie. She looks at Ichigo as though regarding him before saying, "My name is Shizuko." 

"Well Shizuko, seeing that Aizen is after you, we can't just let you go off on your own. You were nearly caught this time, so it's best that you stay here where we can protect you."

This takes Shizuko by surprise. They actually want to protect her, a complete stranger?

She knows he has a point about her nearly being caught, but she doesn't know if she really can trust them, though.

When the hollow attacked her, she knew that there were others behind the barrier surrounding the warehouse and that they didn't move to help her.

She thinks that she can trust the shinigami, but she doesn't know about the others.

They seem to know quite a bit about Aizen, and they seem able to help her.

But, she still remembers the façade that Aizen had put up to use on her to get her to trust him.

She looks over at Shinji. Something about him seems familiar, but she knows that is absurd. She never met him before.

But, she isn't sensing the same thing she sensed from Aizen. He actually seems trustworthy. He may actually help her.

No, no, no. She mustn't involve others in this. Aizen wants something from her, and she is pretty sure he won't hesitate to kill anyone that gets in the way.

She doesn't want to get them killed because of her.

"Thanks for the offer, but I can't stay here. I need to get going."

She starts to get up from the couch, wincing in pain as she remembers that she is injured. 

"What are you talking about? You were nearly caught!" says Ichigo. 

"I know. But that was the first time in weeks that they had found me. I need to leave now to make my trail cold before Aizen sends more out after me." 

"You do realize that we can't help you if you decide to leave town on us, right?" says Shinji. 

"I know. I can take care of myself just fine."

Shizuko starts limping towards the door. Nobody is convinced that she will be fine if she leaves in her condition. Ichigo knows that he needs to stop her.

Shinji is considering just knocking her out to keep her from leaving when Ichigo suddenly speaks up. 

"I know a guy who would be able to watch you. His name is Urahara."

Shizuko stops in her tracks. She turns to look at Ichigo.

Now that he has her attention, he continues to speak.

"If you don't want to impose on these guys, then you don't have to, but you need someone to watch you. Urahara will be able to put you up and protect you from the arrancars. You have my word on that." 

She stares at Ichigo. She never ran into someone so intent on helping her. This is a bit foreign to her. However, she can't help but feel a bit…happy? It has been so long since she felt happy.

She knows that look in his eyes, too. He isn't going to give up on the argument.

She has to admit that she'll be in trouble if she runs into another arrancar soon, given her injuries.

She decides to trust the shinigami.

"Fine, I'll stay there until this whole thing blows over."

Ichigo breathes a sigh of relief, seeing as she isn't going to argue about this anymore. 

"Good, because you are going to need our help if Aizen is after you." 

Shizuko just simply nods and starts heading for the door again when someone grabs her arm. She looks over to see Ichigo putting her arm over his shoulders.

He intends to help her over there.

It takes her a minute for her to realize that she never asked him for his name.

"What's your name?" 

"Ichigo Kurosaki." 

"Well then, thanks Ichigo."

"No problem." 

The two go on their way towards the shop leaving the vizards behind.

Shinji still wants to know what it is about her that's bugging him, but since she is going to be at Urahara's, he can stop by anytime to figure it out.

"What the hell would Aizen want with a human?" asks Hiyori.

"It probably has to do with her reiastu. Didn't you feel it when she attacked the hollows? She has to be as powerful as Ichigo at least," says Lisa. 

Shinji agrees with Lisa. She has such a huge amount of reiastu. It would be bad if Aizen gets his hands on her.

Shinji suddenly senses something outside. He heads outside, ignoring the questions from the others.

Once outside, he looks around to see nothing. Then, he looks up just in time to see two figures suddenly disappear from his sight.

"Tch."

If they are who he thinks they are, Ichigo and Shizuko are in for a rough time if they don't make it to Urahara's in time.


	5. Chapter 5

**It's time for chapter 5! I know I was being a bit evil by ending the last chapter with a cliffhanger. Will I be evil and do it again? You shall see. Remember, I am looking for reviews and name suggestions for my OC in my upcoming FMA story. **

**Just to let you know, I won't be able to update either of my stories for the next 2 or 3 days. I letting you know so, hopefully, you don't get impatient with me. I promise to update as soon as I can, but I have other things that I need to do. So please wait patiently for my next update.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 5

Ichigo and Shizuko walk toward the Urahara Shoten at a slow and steady pace.

After all, neither wants her injuries to open up before they get there.

Shizuko doesn't know who Urahara is, but she is going to trust Ichigo on the fact that he can help her.

That's when she senses them. There are two of them, and they appear to be locking onto Ichigo's reiastu because she is still hiding hers.

_Why are they locking onto his? Do they know that I'm with him?_

Either way, she doesn't want them to catch them. She starts to pick up speed.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Ichigo sees that she is trying to go faster, despite the fact that he has her arm around his shoulders.

Then he senses them too.

_Shit! They came back so soon. I have to get her to Urahara's before I can take care of them._

Ichigo then stops and picks her up, despite the fact that she is wincing in pain. Once he has her bridal style, he starts shunpoing to the shop.

"We'll get there faster if I carry you. You need to get there before they find us."

Shizuko calms down as she hears his explanation for picking her up so abruptly. So, he senses them too. He's right. They have to get there as fast as possible.

They got halfway there when an arrancar suddenly cuts them off in the middle of the road.

Ichigo stops in his tracks while tightening his grip around Shizuko.

Shizuko winces slightly from his grip, but starts ignoring the pain as she examines the arrancar before them.

He is tall and looks pretty well muscled. He has a blank expression on his face as he stops the two from going further.

The part of his mask that he still has sits on top of his head with two horns curling up from it.

_Shit! I didn't think that more would come so soon. I guess Aizen is getting impatient._

"Well, looks like we finally found you. Do you realize how frustrating it is to find a coward like you?"

Ichigo turns around to see a smaller arrancar standing behind them. He looks a bit more feminine than the other, and he doesn't have as much muscle. His mask comes down on the left half of his face, almost like the Phantom of the Opera mask.

Shizuko knows he's only trying to bait her with the coward comment in order to try to separate her from Ichigo, but she isn't going to fall for it.

"Hey, shinigami! Why don't you just leave the girl here and just go about your own business? We promise not to kill you if you do."

The smaller arrancar is starting to piss Ichigo off. Leave her? He isn't about to let Aizen make her suffer through whatever hell he has planned for her.

"Hey, Shizuko."

Shizuko looks up at Ichigo, wondering what he is going to do.

"Sorry to ask this of you, I know that you still need to recover, but can you erect another barrier for yourself?"

Shizuko's eyes narrow a bit as she understands what he is planning to do. She knows that he is powerful from the feel of his reiastu, but will he be able to win? She doesn't know, but they don't have many options. She'll just have to hope that he'll win.

She assesses her own reiastu. Thanks to the attack earlier and her own lack of control draining most of her reiastu, she won't be able to put up a strong barrier. In fact, she's pretty sure that one of these arrancars would be able to break it.

But, she'll just have to try and hope that these two will be too cautious to try to break it.

"Yes."

"Good."

Ichigo puts her down gently and turns to face the small arrancar.

Shizuko concentrates on the barrier. If she concentrates on how she felt when the hollows attacked her before, she'll be able to produce a barrier, right?

Well, it's a start either way, and it appears to be working because an orange barrier surrounds her once again.

_Good. Now that she's protected, I can fight them without her getting hurt or captured._

Ichigo grabs Zangetsu's hilt and charges at the smaller arrancar.

The arrancar manages to block the attack with his own zanpacto.

Ichigo swings Zangetsu at him again, this time at his side. The arrancar blocks again.

"How stupid do you think we are?"

Ichigo's eyes widen in confusion at this.

"We know that she doesn't have the control or even the strength right now to maintain a barrier."

At his words, Shizuko turns around to see the other arrancar slam his fist down and shatter the weak barrier.

"This must be our lucky day," says the taller arrancar, "to actually catch you being so weak."

Shizuko watches with wide eyes as he slams his palm against her. The impact makes her fly several feet through the air and then skid a couple of more feet against the ground.

Ichigo watches in horror as her barrier breaks and the arrancar slam his fist against her.

What he is confused about is that, despite the fact that the arrancar used a lot of force in the hit, she didn't move.

He watches as her body crumples lifelessly to the ground. That is when he sees a chain leading away from her body.

_No!_

Ichigo sees what he did now. He shoved her soul out of her body.

_I have to stop him from breaking the chain!_

Ichigo turns around and goes after the arrancar after her until the smaller one cuts him off.

"I don't think so. I'm your opponent here. You're going to fight me while my friend takes care of her. After all, it's the girl soul that Aizen's interested in. He doesn't care what happens to the body."

Ichigo clenches his teeth and glares at him.

_I have to get to her!_

Shizuko slowly gets up from the ground after she finally stopped skidding. She looks around.

The arrancar has thrown her into the park that is next to the street they were on. She is in the middle of an empty clearing and is only about ten feet from the tree line.

_I can probably lose him if I can make it to the trees._

This plan becomes highly improbable as she winces in pain from her earlier injuries when she tries to move towards the tree line.

She stops when she hears a sound. The sound seems to be linked to the pain in her chest.

She looks down to see a chain protruding from her chest.

Her eyes widen. Her eyes follow the chain to find that it is attached to a body. Her body.

_Am I…dead?_

She stares at her body, horrified by what happened.

_Wait, since I'm still attached to it by this chain, does that mean I can still go back to it?_

It only seems logical to her. She just needs to make sure the chain stays intact.

Just as she thinks that, the larger arrancar appears in front of her, swinging his sword down at her chain.

Shizuko isn't thinking as she sees the sword swing down. She just knows that she has to get away from him.

She doesn't know how she is next to the arrancar one minute and 15 feet away from him the next.

She stares at the empty space in front of her in confusion.

_What happened?_

She, however, has no time to wonder about it because the arrancar comes at her again, and again she disappears and reappears a distance away from him.

_I don't know how I'm doing this, but I'm not complaining._

Ichigo watches in amazement as Shizuko shunpos away from the arrancar over and over again.

"I guess she does have some talent for this. She may be a bigger pain than I thought."

Ichigo turns around just in time to see his opponent disappear from his sight.

Shizuko shunpos away from the arrancar once again. Except this time, pain from an earlier injury shoots up her leg and she stops for a moment.

However, that moment is all the small arrancar needs to come down on her chain with his blade and break it, leaving only 5 feet left attached to her.

_No…_


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey! Sorry it took me a while to update. But, I will try to update as many chapters to both stories as often as possible. I will even have the FMA story started soon, so be sure to watch out for that. Also, please review my stories. Now, without further ado…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 6

_Am I really dead now?_

Shizuko watches in horror as her chain, or what's left of it, fall to the ground in front of her. There's barely five feet left of it.

"I thought that you actually had some talent. Guess that was just a fluke then."

Shizuko turns to see the small arrancar standing next to her, looking disappointed.

"I honestly don't know what Aizen-sama wants with a pitiful human like you, but I'm as good as dead if I kill you. So how about you come with us quietly."

Shizuko isn't sure how to respond to this. She is actually feeling quite a few emotions at once: shock, fear, helplessness, rage.

She finally settles on rage. Like hell she is going to surrender so easily.

She doesn't know who Aizen is, but anyone who associates with hollows like this can't have good intentions. She had sensed that when she first saw him.

She does, however, sense that she can trust Ichigo and the others that are at the warehouse.

She doesn't know why, but she has a gut feeling about it and her gut has yet to fail her.

So, because of that, she is going to stick with them, at least until she learns more about the situation that she has been dragged into.

"If you're not going to surrender, then we'll just have to rough you up some more."

Ichigo stands frozen as he sees the arrancar raise his Zanpakuto.

_Shit!_

"Shizuko! Run!"

Shizuko suddenly realizes that the arrancar is about to strike.

At that moment, she feels a strange burst of energy gather inside of her. It continues to build up until she has to let it out, but how?

Everything seems to be going in slow motion as the arrancar swings his sword down.

She doesn't have a conscious thought as she disappears and then reappears above him. She is barely aware of her leg swinging down on his head. The only thing going through her mind is that she must not let them win. She must not let them catch her.

Ichigo watches in shock as Shizuko aims a kick at the arrancar's head and makes contact.

The arrancar has no idea what hit him as the impact of the kick forces his head to the ground.

The shockwave kicks up a lot of dirt, momentarily blinding Ichigo and the other arrancar.

When the dust finally clears, Ichigo is shocked by what he sees.

The force of the impact actually created a crater where Shizuko and the arrancar were at.

Shizuko is standing at the edge looking down into the crater. She looks horrified by something.

Ichigo runs up to the crater to see what she is looking at. He gasps as he stares down at the arrancar with his skull smashed in at the center of the crater.

Shizuko can't believe what she is seeing.

_Did I really kill someone?_

The thought alone is enough to make her sick to her stomach. Yes, the guy was trying to harm her and who knows what the hell Aizen is planning for her, but she has never killed anyone before.

She can't help but feel unease as she stares at the corpse in the crater.

The surviving arrancar isn't overly affected by this new development.

_I told the idiot that she is not to be underestimated. Aizen-sama has a very good reason for singling her out._

The arrancar sonidos right behind her.

Shizuko is brought back to reality as she remembers that there is another one after her.

She turns around just in time for the arrancar to grab her by the chain and pull hard on it.

She screams in pain as the chain threatens to be ripped right off of her. She has never been in so much pain before. She has to make him let go of it.

She looks down to see that the chain is already halfway ripped off.

She can't take it anymore. She grabs the chain herself, and as she does, a bolt of energy shoots out from her hand, severing the chain so she could get away from him.

The arrancar is left standing there with the part of the chain that he grabbed onto.

_I'm pretty sure Aizen-sama is planning on doing something like this anyway, but I still need to get her to Los Noches before anything else happens to her._

Shizuko falls to her knees, clutching her chest in pain and her eyes shut tight. There is so much pain. It feels like she is dying a thousand deaths. She just wants it to go away.

She doesn't know how long she sat there in pain. It feels like it has been hours to her, but, after a while, the pain starts to go away.

Relief floods through her as the pain fades away, but what's making it go away?

She opens her eyes and looks down at her chest. Her hand is…glowing? The chain is attaching itself back to her chest. She stares with wide eyes as her glowing hands not only fix the chain, but they seem to be healing some of her other injuries. They were mainly the injuries on the chest and arms, though.

Both Ichigo and the arrancar stare with wide eyes as Shizuko appears to be healing herself.

_I think I'm beginning to understand why Aizen-sama is so interested in the girl._

The arrancar then sonidos right behind her. She senses him and is prepared for him this time.

She shunpos away just as he makes a grab for her, except this time, she doesn't reappear.

"Hiding again, are we?" The arrancar is annoyed with how easily she disappears on them.

"Fine, I'll just summon some backup to track you down."

As he says this, several garganta open up behind him. Ichigo stares with wide eyes as a couple of dozen hollows pour out of them and start running off.

_No! I have to stop them!_

Just as Ichigo starts running off after the hollows, the arrancar sonidos in front of him, stopping him yet again.

"I don't think so. You are going to fight me while those hollows track the girl down. She is good, I'll admit. But not even she can fight off so many hollows in her current state."

Ichigo clenches his teeth as he realizes that he'll have to take care of him first before finding Shizuko.

_I don't have time for this!_

The arrancar is just about to charge at Ichigo, when a sword suddenly starts protruding from his chest.

The arrancar stares at the sword in his chest in shock. Who did this? The Kurosaki kid is still standing in front of him.

The arrancar turns his head to look over his shoulder to see someone with blonde hair, wearing a newsboy cap.

"Who are you?"

Shinji looks up at the arrancar he is about to kill before he answers him.

"Should it matter who I am? You're going to die anyway."

With that, Shinji rips his Zanpakuto out of him and slashes down on the dying arrancar.

The arrancar disintegrates into nothingness.

Shinji sheathes his Zanpakuto and looks up to find Ichigo staring at him in shock.

"Why are you here?"

_Does he really have the time to be asking me questions like this? Where is the girl?_

"The battle was a bit too close to home, and you were letting a bunch of hollows loose in the area, so I came to settle things down here. Where is the girl?"

Ichigo eyes widen as he remembers that Shizuko is still being chased by hollows.

"I don't know. She disappeared when the arrancar made a grab at her. He summoned a lot of hollows to track her down. We need to find her before they do."

Shinji nods and starts trying to focus on her reiatsu. The problem is: neither of them can sense her.

Shinji sighs in defeat.

"She's too good for us to track down, apparently. We're just going to have to search the town and kill hollows while we're at it."

Ichigo nods, realizing that she won't let herself be found that easily.

However, before either of them can choose which direction to go first, an explosion of reiatsu reaches them.

Both of them stand with wide eyes as they recognize the reiatsu.

"Shit!" Ichigo curses as he speeds off towards the source of the reiatsu.

"Ichigo, wait up!"

Shinji follows closely behind Ichigo.

They run in her direction for a few minutes. They are both mildly surprised that she has managed to get so far away so fast.

Shinji eyes suddenly widen and he begins to pick up speed.

_Her reiatsu is starting to drop and a bit too fast, too._

Shinji doesn't know why he feels the need to help her. She is just a human, after all.

But, something about her has been bothering Shinji ever since she was brought into the warehouse. He wants to know what it is. But, not even that completely explains why he feels that he needs to help her.

He decides not to dwell on it at the moment as he and Ichigo turn a corner and to find Shizuko falling to the ground.

They don't know how she got at least two stories into the air. They just know that someone needs to catch her and fast.

"Shizuko!"

Ichigo jumps ahead of Shinji to try to catch her in time, but a shadow suddenly darts in from a nearby alleyway and in the next second, Shizuko disappears.

Ichigo stops in his tracks and stares at the now empty space in the sky, wondering what happened.

"Hey, Ichigo! Over here!"

He looks to his right to find Yoruichi holding Shizuko bridal style.

"Yoruichi-san?"

"I figured you needed a hand since there were a bunch of hollows here a few seconds ago. Long time no see, Shinji."

Ichigo walks over to Yoruichi to check on Shizuko. He is planning on asking how she knew Shinji later.

Yoruichi sees that Ichigo is worried about the girl. She supposes that's no surprise. Ichigo is always trying to protect others.

"She's just fine. She only has a few scrapes and bruises. Maybe even a couple of cuts on her legs. I'll just take her to Urahara's so she can rest."

Ichigo sighs in relief.

"Thanks. We were actually on the way to his shop when the arrancars and hollows attacked."

Yoruichi's eyes narrow a bit at his last statement.

"Were the arrancars after her?"

Ichigo nods.

"Yes, we don't know why, but Aizen is trying to catch her. He's been hunting her down for the last month."

"I see." Yoruichi looks down at the girl. Now that she looks at her, and thinking back to the reiatsu she felt earlier, she thinks she knows why Aizen is after her.

She looks up to see Shinji. He is staring at the girl curiously. He doesn't seem to be seeing what she is seeing, though.

_I thought he would have been one of the first people to see it. Oh well. I guess it would be better this way._

Ichigo stares down at the girl. She is unconscious and doesn't have much reiatsu left. It's best if she doesn't fight for a while. She wasn't supposed to fight in the first place.

Ichigo suddenly catches sight of a sword in her right hand. His eyes widen.

"Is that a Zanpakuto?"

Yoruichi looks down to see the Zanpakuto in her hand. She frowns as she answers.

"Yes, its how she fought off half of the hollows that were here while I was taking care of the other half. Didn't she have one to begin with?"

"No, the arrancar shoved her soul out of her body and severed her chain. She didn't have a Zanpakuto then, but she did a lot of shunpo to get away from the arrancar."

Yoruichi's eyes widen in shock.

_What's going on here? Something doesn't make sense. I need to ask Urahara to look into this._

"Is something wrong?"

This time it's Shinji who asks the question. He saw Yoruichi's expression when Ichigo said that her soul was pushed out of her body. Is there something wrong with that story?

Yoruichi turns to look at Shinji. He still doesn't see it, so there is no point in explaining it to him now. Besides, who knows what his reaction would be.

"No, nothing's wrong. We better get her to Urahara's. You coming, Shinji?"

Shinji ponders that for a moment while his gaze lands on the girl in her arms. He knows that there is something more to her than what they saw, and Yoruichi seems to know something as well.

But, the girl is really none of the vizards' concern, and he really needs to get back to the warehouse. He kind of just took off on everybody when he felt the two encountering the arrancars.

"No, I need to get back."

Yoruichi just nods and turns to the direction of the shop. Ichigo turns to follow her.

Shinji stands there watching the two leave until he turns around himself and starts heading for the warehouse.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey! Sorry it took me so long to update. I've been busier than I thought I would be. Sorry if it takes me a while to update every now and then. I have to keep up with more than one story, so my attention is a bit divided. **

**Some of you may already know this, but writer's block is such a bitch sometimes. It took me a while to figure out how to go about this chapter. Now I need to figure out how to progress my other stories.**

**I'll try to get in at least one chapter a week, but I can't make any guarantees. But don't worry; the stories will be updated no matter how much time passes. So without further ado…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 7

_She is running as fast as her injured legs would allow her down the street. She can hear the roaring getting louder behind her. She knows that she won't be able to outrun the hollows this time, but how can she fight them off?_

_Defeat isn't acceptable. If she loses, she will either be stuck in Aizen's hands or be a hollow's meal. She can't afford to lose._

_One of the cuts on her leg sends a throb of pain, making her trip. She raises her hands up in front of her as she slides across the pavement a bit. She looks up to see the hollows surrounding her. There isn't any escape for her this time._

_What is she going to do? How does she fight back?_

_As she moves herself into a defensive stance, her hand brushes against something at her side. She looks down to see a sword strapped to her belt. When the hell did that get there?_

_She decides to stop questioning this as a hollow starts charging at her. She automatically wraps her hand around the hilt and pulls the sword out to block the hollow's attack. She then pushes the hollow back and strikes out at it while it is still stumbling._

_She manages to slice it down the mask and the hollow disappears immediately afterwards._

_She looks around at the other hollows. There is no way that she can fight all of them off on her own._

"_Hey! Looks like you need some help."_

_She turns around to see a dark-skinned woman with purple hair take out a couple of hollows and then appear right next to her._

"_Who are you?" The woman turns toward her and regards her for a minute._

"_Don't worry. I'm a friend that's here to help you out. I take this half and you can take that half." She indicates the groups with her thumbs. Shizuko doesn't know how'll she'll take car of them, but it's better than having to fight off all of them. She nods._

"_Great!" The woman disappears in a flash and already half of her hollows are gone._

_Damn! She hopes that she won't have to fight her. She is so damn fast! Right, need to focus on her half of the hollows._

_Before she can think of what to do, a hollow grabs her around the waist and brings her up to his eye level. This one is tall! She looks down to see that she is already about four stories off the ground._

_She looks up to see the hollow bringing her closer to his face to get a better look at her. She doesn't know whether or not he's going to eat her, but she does know that she has to get him to let go. _

_She struggles against his grip, but she isn't getting anywhere fast. She can hear the hollow laugh at her attempts and tighten his grip on her._

_She gasps for air. She can't breathe. She can feel her ribcage being crushed. He is crushing the life out of her._

_No! She has to get out of here. She has to breathe! _

_Suddenly, she feels that same energy from before building up in her again. There seems to be more energy than last time. _

_Her vision is starting to get blurry, but not before she sees sparks of electricity flying around her. She can't hold the energy in anymore. _

_She screams out as the wave of energy rushes out of her. She sees sparks of electricity flying everywhere, but she can't see if they are hitting anything. She doesn't know how long this lasts. She just knows that she suddenly blacks out during all of this. _

_Before she goes completely unconscious, she feels herself falling through the air…_

…

Shizuko slowly regains consciousness. She can see an orange glow from behind her eyelids. She slowly opens her eyes to see that everything is orange.

_What…?_

"Oh, you're finally awake!"

Shizuko turns her head to the side to see a girl. She has long hair and big, innocent-looking eyes. She is pretty sure that her hair is orange, but she can't tell her eye color from behind the barrier. She is wearing what looks like a school uniform. Shizuko sees that her hands are held up in front of her and it is then that she realizes that the girl has erected a barrier around her.

Shizuko tries to sit up, but the barrier prevents her from moving too much.

"You shouldn't try to get up yet. I'm still healing your wounds." Now that she mentions it, Shizuko does feel better now. Her legs aren't in pain, and as far as she can tell, she doesn't have any of the major cuts and bruises anymore. It must be this barrier she's in.

Orihime sighs when she sees the girl comply and lay back down. She doesn't know who she is, but she does know that she has been through a lot from the condition she originally saw her in. She doesn't know all of the details yet, just that, after school got out, Ichigo came running up to her while in his shinigami form. He told her about the arrancar attack and that someone needed her help.

From there, they both ran to Urahara's and Orihime walked in to see a battered girl in tattered clothes. Urahara explained that, while Ichigo was getting Orihime, Yoruichi picked up her body and Urahara placed her soul back in it. All that was left to do was to heal the injuries.

Orihime watches as the remnants of the girl's injuries start to disappear completely.

"Who are you?" She looks down to see the girl staring at her in slight confusion. She smiles as she answers.

"I'm Orihime Inoue. I'm here to help you."

Shizuko just stares at Orihime while she processes what she heard. Help her? It feels like quite a few people have been telling her that lately. Why do they want to help her though? What is it that they have against Aizen? She wants answers. She wants to know the whole story.

"What's your name?" Shizuko snaps out of her thoughts when she hears the question and looks at Orihime. Did nobody tell her any details? It could just be that someone neglected to tell her the name.

"I'm Shizuko."

Orihime nods. "Quiet child" seems to suit her, at least for the moment. She doesn't know anything about Shizuko, but she seems to be the quiet type.

Orihime hears the door slide open behind her and turns to see Urahara, Yoruichi, and Ichigo walk into the room. She smiles as she tells them, "Hey guys! She's awake! And I'm just finishing up here."

Ichigo breathes a sigh of relief at the news. She has been out for a while, and her reiastu has been really low since the battle. But, he had no doubt that Orihime would be able to heal her. She hasn't let them down before.

Urahara looks around Orihime to see the girl still laying down, but hers eyes are wide open. She seems a bit wary of her surroundings, but she looks like she is okay.

"So, Shizuko, Ichigo here told me that the arrancars from earlier were after you. Is that true?"

Shizuko turns her attention to the man wearing a striped hat. Is he this 'Urahara' person that Ichigo told her about? Considering Ichigo has told him what happened, she guesses that he is.

"Yes, but before you ask, I don't know why I'm being hunted down. I know that someone named Aizen is ordering them to catch me alive." She normally tries to tell so much to others to keep them out of something that's her problem, but she has to admit that she needs help. She can't keep running from them forever.

Urahara nods. He has been afraid of this. He had been hoping that Aizen wouldn't catch on to her. Looks like not everything works out the way you want them to.

"Um, excuse me, but who are you? And, where are we?"

The questions catch him by surprise. She doesn't know? What the hell happened?

First there was the incident in which she was forced out of her body that raised questions, and now these questions.

Urahara pulls out his fan and hides his face behind it as he ponders this. This is something he'll need to look into later.

"We are at the Urahara Shoten, and I'm the owner, Kisuke Urahara!" He says this with enthusiasm and in his usual cheerful way.

Shizuko stares as Urahara cheerfully starts waving his fan around. Her head suddenly starts pounding. She must have hit her head or something during the fight. She just can't remember at what point she did.

She looks around Urahara to see the same purple-haired woman that helped her out earlier. She must have helped her here as well.

"Hey you." The woman focuses her attention on her as she realizes that she is talking to her.

"Thanks for your help with the hollows earlier…ummm." She remembers that she was never told her name.

The woman smiles a bit as she replies.

"The name's Yoruichi, and you're welcome."

"Okay! I'm done!" Orihime exclaims as she removes the barrier around Shizuko.

Shizuko sits up, seeing as she is free to move now, and stares at the people before her. She is going to get the story behind Aizen now. She needs to know who he is and just why he dragged her into whatever mess he plans on making.

"I'm just going to go ahead and ask. Just who is Aizen? And, what is it that you have against him? And, if you can answer it, just what does he want with me?"

Urahara stares at her from behind his fan. Yep, something wrong definitely had to happen if she has to ask those questions. Oh well, he's just going to have to explain because it is doubtful that she is going to let this drop until she knows the answers.

"Aizen is a shinigami. He was a captain of the Gotei 13 and is very powerful. He has betrayed Soul Society and stole an item called the Hogyouko. It is a very powerful object that can cause a lot of damage if in the wrong hands. He claims that he is after Heaven's throne, but he will cause a lot of damage not only to Soul Society, but to this world as well in pursuit of his goals. Are you following so far?"

Shizuko slowly nods as she processes the information.

"So basically, Aizen is a manipulative, power-hungry, heartless bastard who is arrogant enough to think that he can get away with destroying the world in pursuit for power."

Urahara nods.

She ponders this for a minute.

"That still doesn't explain why he is coming after me, though."

Urahara snaps his fan shut before he answers her.

"We actually don't really know what he wants with you, either. But, if I have to guess, it has something to do with all that reiastu you released earlier. You are a lot more powerful than some of the shinigami in Soul Society. He probably thought he could use your power to his advantage if he could get to you."

So it all comes back to her powers. The powers that she can't control. She needs someone to teach her how to control her powers.

Shizuko suddenly remembers something. Didn't she have a sword in that last fight? She looks around the room, but she sees no sign of her sword.

"If you are looking for your Zanpakuto, it is not out here."

She looks back up at Urahara with a questioning look.

"What do you mean? Where is it? Where did it even come from?"

Urahara flips his fan open again as he answers her.

"It is where it came from: your soul."

He looks down to see a confused expression on her face. Honestly, what happened? Now they have to start over with the basics.

"Your Zanpakuto is part of your soul. It assists you when you need it, such as when you are in danger. When you have been shoved out of your body and were in danger, your Zanpakuto came to your aid. Now that your soul is back in your body, it returned to your soul."

Shizuko made an O with her mouth as she starts to understand what he is talking about.

She remembers that she felt power running through the blade as she attacked the hollows. Maybe she can control her power through her Zanpakuto.

This guy seems to know a lot about it, so maybe she can ask him.

She looks up at him with a serious look on her face. Urahara takes note of this and wonders what she is thinking.

"You seem to know a lot about this. Will you teach me how to control my powers?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey! Sorry it took me so long to update. I finally decided to focus on my Bleach story for a while and get to my other stories at a later time. I will be sure to update a couple of chapters to this story during this week, especially since I'm going to go to Miami for a week! I will probably bring my laptop with me on the trip, but that doesn't mean I will be able to do any updates during the trip. I will try to give you as many chapters as I can for you to read while I am away, so hopefully you will be satisfied and will wait patiently for the return of more updates.**

**I am also debating if I should include more Japanese into this story or to make it more English. Let me know which one you would prefer. Also, on the Zanpakuto's name I picked out, there is actually a dash over the first O and I, I just didn't know how to put them there. If you know, will you please tell me?**

**I will eventually get to my others stories, but for now, I have a better idea of how to continue this one better than the others.**

**Now, in case I haven't been annoying enough about this, please, please, please, please, PUH-LEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEEE, review! I need to know what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 8

Ichigo once again flies through the air and slams against a rock in the underground training facility. He slowly sits up as his opponent starts yelling again.

"What the hell are you doing, dumbass? I told you to stay hollowfied!" Hiyori is really starting to get on Ichigo's nerves. He is trying, but he also doesn't want to lose control of his hollow.

It has been over a week since the arrancars attacked Shizuko and she asked Urahara for training. In that time, Urahara had agreed to train her, and a few days later, Grimmjow and his group attacked and left. After that, Ichigo went to the vizards for training to control his inner hollow.

He has been making a little progress, but not enough to make the snaggle-toothed shorty to stop yelling at him.

The rest of the vizards are sitting in their own spots nearby watching the two of them fight and going about their own business. Shinji watches the two wondering if Ichigo has enough time for the training before the battle.

He sighs as his thoughts start to wander back to the girl. He is still wondering just who she is. But, she's Urahara's business now. When Shinji asked about her after he came for the training, he said that Urahara was going to train her so she'll be able to fight against the arrancars if the need arises again.

Since that is being taken care of, the only thing they need to do now is to train Ichigo to control his inner hollow and to use his mask for longer periods of time.

Ichigo pulls his hand down his face again to make the mask reappear and Hiyori charges in to attack once again.

The rest are starting to get bored watching and try to think of other things to do. Lisa is reading a magazine, Love is reading a manga, Rose is listening to a CD, and the rest are just sitting around thinking of what to do.

At least until Mashiro decides to ask a question.

"Hey, how do you think Shizuko is doing with her training?"

This question throws everyone else off. Why would she be asking that now?

Shinji is also curious, but he doesn't see much of a point in asking.

"Why are you asking that?" Kensei doesn't see why she is actually curious about her. She isn't any of their business. Plus, she is training with Urahara, so she's probably fine. Then again, it _is_ Urahara that's training her…

"I'm just curious. Besides, didn't anyone else find something odd about her?"

This catches Shinji's attention.

"What do you mean by odd? She is a human whose reiastu is able to rival Ichigo's. You're going to have to be more specific." It's Lisa who says this and is equally as curious as Shinji as to what she means.

"Don't any of you find something a bit familiar about her?"

"What are you talking about? We don't know any humans."

"I agree with Kensei here. I think you may have her confused with someone else." Love continues reading his manga as he says this.

Shinji can't help but think that Mashiro may be on to something, but, like the rest of the vizards, he decides to let it drop.

After a few minutes of watching Ichigo and Hiyori fight, Hachi suddenly senses something. Shinji notices this and asks, "What is it, Hachi?"

"I don't know. I thought I sensed something skim the barrier, but whatever it was disappeared."

"Would it be a bird or something?"

"I don't think so, but whatever it is, it's gone now."

Shinji just shrugs and turns his attention back to the fight.

"…Is that what hollowfication is?"

Shinji suddenly jumps as he turns around to see Shizuko sitting right next to him. How the hell did she get in here without being noticed?

The rest of the vizards also notice her sudden appearance and are just as shocked as Shinji by this. Even Ichigo and Hiyori have stopped their fight when they noticed the visitor.

After a few seconds of silence, the rest of the vizards start walking towards her to hear her explanation as to how she got in and why she is here.

It is Shinji who starts asking the questions.

"How the hell did you get in here?"

"…I used the front door, duh."

Shinji nearly face palms at that answer, but decides to continue interrogating her instead.

"What I mean is, how did you get through the barrier without being noticed?"

"I slipped through the barrier. I didn't know that nobody noticed until I got down here."

Shinji looks a bit exasperated at the answers he's getting, but he has a feeling that if he asked her how she slipped through, her answer would be "I don't know."

"Why are you here, anyway? Isn't Urahara supposed to be training you or something?"

Shizuko understands as to why he is asking the questions, but she is getting a bit tired of having to answer questions all the time.

"Yes, but he said that he could really only show me the proper state of mind or something like that. I didn't get what he meant, so I decided to see if I could get a good example from Ichigo about it."

Shinji sighs. She doesn't seem to get how she needs to do this herself, but she hasn't really had any experience, so she probably does need an example. But why couldn't Urahara provide her with one? He's the one who's supposed to be watching her.

"And why should we help you with your training? We're not obligated to do anything for you." It is Hiyori who speaks up this time.

Shizuko sighs. She is starting to get irritated by all the questions. She just wants to get what she needs and leave.

"I'm not asking for your help. I'm just going to watch to see if I can get anything out of it. If I do, I'll leave. If I don't, I'll still leave. You don't need to do anything for me."

Shinji stares at her incredulously. She really doesn't seem to get it.

"You don't get it. It's not something you can learn from watching others. You have to learn it yourself."

Shizuko stares back at Shinji contemplating his words. She gets what he is saying, but she doesn't know how to do it. That's the real problem.

Shinji can see the conflict in her eyes. What has Urahara been doing? She obviously needs more help than what he gave her.

"I have an idea."

Everyone turns their attention to Shinji as he says this. Shinji turns to Ichigo and motions him to come over. Ichigo walks over until he is standing right next to Shizuko and Shinji.

"Ichigo, you are now Shizuko's sparring partner."

"What?" Both of them are surprised about this. Shinji just stares at the two of them with a dead-panned look on his face.

"You can't learn this stuff by just watching others. You need experience in order to understand, and since Ichigo is a human like you, he probably understands your situation better than the rest of us."

"But what about my training?"

Shinji rolls his eyes.

"You can do that when you are not training her. She's not going to be here the whole time anyway, right?"

Shizuko nods.

"That's right. I still have to go back to Urahara's sometime before dark."

"Then it's settled. Ichigo, go ahead and start training with her."

As the two reluctantly start walking away, the vizards gather in to question Shinji about the decision.

"Are you sure this is alright? Ichigo barely has enough time as it is with his own training." Love.

"Yes, and Urahara is the one that agreed to train her, so why did he dump her on us?" Kensei.

"Since when do we help humans, huh? She isn't any of our business, so why are you letting her train here?" Hiyori.

Shinji calmly hears them out on their concerns and answers just as calmly, "Ichigo will be just fine with his training. He will still be ready by the war. As for Shizuko, she does obviously not understand much about any of this, and since Ichigo is the only other human here, he is able to answer her questions better. Since Aizen obviously has a plan that involves her, she needs to be able to fight so that she won't get captured. We still don't know what Aizen intends on using the girl for, but it is probably in our best interests that she stays out of Hueco Mundo."

The rest still don't seem too sure about it, but they decide to go along with it anyway.

Once Ichigo and Shizuko are far enough away from the group, Ichigo turns toward her and realizes that she doesn't have her Zanpakuto out.

"You're going to need your Zanpakuto in order to train."

"I know. It's right here."

She reaches over her shoulder and grabs onto a hilt that Ichigo didn't notice before. She pulls put her Zanpakuto, but it's not how Ichigo remembers it.

The blade itself is actually curved, like one of those cutlasses seen on pirate movies, and it is only three feet long. The hilt is also slightly curved and fits quite nicely in the palm of her hand. The hilt of the sword is gold and black.

"Is that your Zanpakuto?"

Shizuko nods.

"I already knew my Zanpakuto's name, but I didn't know that the voice that I have been hearing was the Zanpakuto, so I didn't know that I could call on her against the hollows. When I did call on her while training, she didn't revert back to her sealed state. Since I still have a scabbard that will fit her, I didn't think much of it. Besides, your Zanpakuto is also always in its released state, so why are you so surprised?"

"I'm not really all that surprised. I just never met anyone else who always has their Zanpakuto in a released state. What's its name?"

"Shadobisuto (Shadow Beast)."

"Interesting name. Why is it called that?"

"I don't know. I haven't tapped into its power yet."

Ichigo nods and prepares to start fighting her. Since she is still new to this, maybe it won't hurt to go a little easy on her until she gets the hang of things.

"Are you ready?"

Shizuko mentally prepares herself before answering.

"Yes."

Shizuko shunpos herself at Ichigo and swings her blade down. Ichigo, who is a bit thrown off by the speed she is starting out with, blocks the attack and makes an attack of his own. He swings at her side, and Shizuko blocks, but, since she is unprepared for the force he uses, she gets thrown back a couple of feet and lands on her back.

Ichigo runs up to her.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Shizuko gets up and brushes the dirt off.

"Yeah, just a bit unprepared at first. Now I'm prepared."

"Okay, if you say so."

Ichigo charges at her this time. Shinji and the others sit on the sidelines watching.

"She seems pretty good considering that she's only been training for a week or so." Rose.

"Yeah, I agree. She appears to have some natural talent for this." Love.

"Yes, but Ichigo is also going easy on her. She is still a newbie compared to him." Lisa.

"I know I know her from somewhere. I just wish that I could remember." Mashiro.

"Mashiro, you don't know her from anywhere. You're just imagining things." Kensei.

"Kensei, you are sooo stupid! I know that I know her from somewhere!" Mashiro, once again, throws one of her tampers.

Shinji can't help but think that she is somewhat familiar as well, but from where? She could be just a look alike of one of the humans he's seen during the hundred years they stayed on Earth.

His thoughts are interrupted by Shizuko suddenly slamming Ichigo against the ground and pinning him down. Ichigo looks just as surprised as Shinji by this.

"For the record, you may not want to hold back. You could end up getting hurt.

...

"Are you sure it was a good idea to let her go over there?"

Yoruichi and Urahara are having tea back at the Urahara Shoten. Shizuko left a while ago saying she wanted to see what Ichigo was doing. She obviously wanted to know how he trains to use as some sort of hint as to what she is supposed to do.

"You could have just told her how's it done yourself, or help her realize that she needs to do it herself."

Yoruichi isn't sure if it was a good idea to let Shizuko to go over to the vizards for training, even if she is only seeking out Ichigo's help. Some of the vizards don't particularly like humans.

"I could have, but I think it may be better for her of she spends more time over there. It may help her recover faster."

Yoruichi nods, understanding what he is getting at. However…

"What if she does? What are you going to do then? She'll be a flight risk at that point."

"I know, but she is better off that way instead of being clueless and out of control. Plus, if Aizen gets a hold of her like this, he may be able to convince her to join him when she wouldn't before."

Yoruichi carefully studies his face as he says this.

"It's hard for you, isn't it? You finally found her only for her to be in such a condition."

Urahara stares back at Yoruichi, unable to deny her words.

"Yes, it is a bit hard, but she will be recovered soon. She just needs to be around the right people."

Yoruichi continues to watch him.

"About what happened a week ago, was that really…"

"Yes. It was."

"That's pretty impressive. I thought that you were the only one capable of such a thing."

"Well, you're forgetting who you are talking about. It isn't really all that unbelievable."

They sit in silence and drink more of their tea. After a couple of minutes, Yoruichi speaks up again.

"How do you think they will react when they realize it?"

Urahara thinks for a bit before answering.

"Hopefully, they'll be glad and try to help us with what we were trying to do. But I have no doubt that they can succeed. We just need to be a little patient."

Yoruichi nods and goes back to her tea. She just hopes that he's right about that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello and welcome back! I'm back with Chapter 9. I wonder, does anyone ever bother to read this section here? -_- I don't really get the answers to whatever questions I post up here. I have over a hundred people read this story yet I only have 8 reviews. By the way, I would like to thank Fanime-Sensei and –RogueSama- for the reviews, especially since they are the only ones that have reviewed this story. Thank you, the reviews are greatly appreciated. ****Well anyway, I better get to the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 9

Ichigo and Shizuko have been training for a couple of hours. Shizuko has managed to pin Ichigo to the ground on several occasions, so much so that Ichigo, as well as the vizards, begin to wonder if she really is new to the shinigami business. At the very least, she knows how to fight and hold her ground.

Right now, Ichigo is flat on his stomach with Shizuko crouch down on his back with her sword held against the back of his neck.

Shinji watches the whole spectacle from his perch on a nearby rock. Either Ichigo sucks worse than originally thought, or she has been at this longer than she lets on. The latter, however, is out of the question because she has been clueless as to how to use her powers a week ago. Although, he has to admit that her progress is a bit unprecedented. She hasn't been at it for a day and she can already beat Ichigo's ass into the ground.

Suddenly, Kensei bangs on a pot and calls out, "Hey, lunch is ready! Last one here has to do dishes!"

In a flash, everyone gathers for lunch and Ichigo is the last one there. At least, he would have if Shizuko didn't hang back, looking a bit lost.

She doesn't know whether or not she should join them. She knows that she isn't overly welcomed by some of them, and plus, she can't make herself impose on them anymore than she has. She doesn't want to take their food and be a complete moocher, like that red-headed shinigami that is staying at Urahara's place.

She doesn't go completely unnoticed. Mashiro looks around and sees Shizuko standing off to the side, not getting any food for herself.

"Hey, Shizuko! Why don't you come get some food? You must be hungry yourself."

Shizuko is slightly surprised by the offer, but she doesn't want to impose on them any further.

"No thanks. I'm fine."

Just as she says that, her stomach lets out a loud growl. Her own stomach rats her out.

_Traitor!_

"Liar. Now come over here and eat something already. We have enough food to go around."

It is Shinji who is now trying to get her to join them. She is still a bit unsure, but she slowly walks forward to join them.

Shinji already has a plate prepared for her and gives it to her. She reluctantly takes it. She isn't use to people being so nice to her. She can't remember the last time someone has been this nice to her. Then again, she doesn't really…

"Hey, eat up. Your food's going to get cold."

She looks over to see Mashiro looking at her curiously. She simply nods and takes a bite of food. It's actually really good.

Shinji studies her as she eats. Despite the fact that she was wiping the floor with Ichigo half the time they were training, she seems to be pretty shy. He gets that she would be cautious after being hunted by hollows for a month, but she doesn't seem prone to open up to people in the first place.

It's going to make figuring her out a bit trickier than he thought.

Shizuko finishes eating. The meal was great and she feels more energized for more training now.

"Thanks, ummm…" She realizes that she doesn't know any of their names aside from Ichigo's.

"Oh, that's right! We never introduced ourselves. I'm Mashiro Kuna."

Mashiro looks expectantly at the others, waiting for them to introduce themselves as well.

"Lisa Yadorimaru."

"Love Aigawa."

"Kensei Mugurama."

"Rojuro Otoribashi, but you can call me Rose."

"Hachigen Ushoda, but you can call me Hachi."

"Hiyori Sarugaki."

"Shinji Hirako."

Shizuko makes sure to memorize everyone's names. She normally sucks at remembering names, but hopefully she'll remember them this time.

However, just as she runs the names through her head, a headache suddenly tears through her head. It's a bit more painful than the last one, too. Come to think of it, she has had a couple of headaches during this past week. Then again, it could be because she has been trying to take everything in at once.

She presses her hand against her temple as she waits for the headache to go away. Just as she does that, something flashes before her eyes and her headache gets worse. She squint her eyes and grips her head tighter. She didn't see what the flash was, but right now she is too focused on the pain to think about it.

This action does not go unnoticed. The rest of the vizards get curious as to what's wrong.

"Hey, Shizuko, what's wrong?"

She opens her eyes and looks toward Mashiro, who looks a bit worried.

"It's nothing, just a headache. It'll go away."

Shinji isn't overly convinced. He doesn't remember her hitting her head during training. And, even then, her headache didn't come until after she ate and rested. Is she overworking herself, perhaps?

Either way, she probably needs more rest.

"Maybe you should call it a day if it persists."

Shizuko looks over at Shinji. For some reason, her head throbs again at this act. Maybe she needs to take Tylenol or something. But she can't call it a day yet. There is still time before she has to go back to Urahara's.

"I'm fine. It's nothing. It'll go away eventually."

She gets up and turns to Ichigo.

"Ready for another round, Ichigo?"

Ichigo is a bit unsure if she should really be training if her head's bothering her, but she seems to be getting better already.

"Ok, if you're sure…"

"Hold it!"

Everyone turns to Hiyori.

"Ichigo was the last one here, so he has to do the dishes!"

"What?" Now Shizuko remembers that being shouted earlier. Except…

"Actually, I was the last one, so shouldn't it be me?" She may as well try to give the guy a break. She has to admit, she is pretty good. She even made sure that he didn't hold back for her sake.

"Don't be silly! You are a guest here. You need to rest more if your head keeps hurting anyway."

She is surprised by the hospitality coming from Shinji. Apparently the rest agree with him, because they haven't raised any further questions about it. It's probably because she's not a vizard herself.

But she decides not to question anyway, since it gets her out of doing the dishes. Tough luck, Ichigo.

...

It is later in the day, and Shizuko and Ichigo are back to training. Since her fighting skills are impressive, they decide to try to tap into her Zanpakuto's power.

She is sitting crossed-legged, trying to find her way into her inner world where her Zanpakuto's spirit resides. Ichigo himself doesn't know how to do this since he's never done it like this, so they had to recruit Hachi to help her with this.

She is sitting still with her eyes close. She doesn't even know what Shadobisuto looks like, she just knows her voice.

_**It's not that hard once you get the hang of it.**_

She is a bit startled to hear her now, but why is she only hearing her and not seeing her?

_Why am I having difficulty entering your world?_

_**You're just not trying hard enough. Besides, you don't need to come here for me to tell you what you are capable of.**_

_Then, will you tell me what you can do._

_**First, it's what we can do. It's not my power alone that does the trick. Second, no, I won't tell you.**_

_Why not?_

_**You didn't let me finish. I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to show you. However, don't misinterpret it. There is more than what meets the eye.**_

_What do you mean by that?_

_**You will learn in time what I mean. In the meantime, just focus your power on me and I will show you an ounce of what you're capable of.**_

Shizuko starts focusing her reiastu on her blade. She can feel the power stirring within it. She just needs to…

"Hey! Are you figuring anything out yet?"

Ichigo just has to interrupt her concentration. She is still focusing on her blade, but now her attention is divided and she hates it when people interrupt her.

She frowns as she tries to get Shadobisuto to show her what she's capable of.

"Hey! Can you hear me? I know you're still conscious. Answer me already!"

She is really starting to get pissed off at him now. She is trying to concentrate, damn it!

"Ichigo, leave her alone. She needs to focus."

Hachi to the rescue! However, that doesn't stop the already building annoyance she has for the shinigami.

"I was just asking…"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY? I'M TRYING TO FOCUS, DAMN IT!"

As she rages at Ichigo, sparks start flying. Literally, there are bolts of electricity dancing off her blade. As well of the rest of her body. She glares at Ichigo, clearly showing on her face that she is pissed.

As she glares daggers at him, a bolt of electricity shoots out from her blade and aims for Ichigo. Ichigo barely dodges the attack just in time for it to hit a boulder behind him instead. The boulder explodes from the attack, scattering pieces everywhere. A couple of them hit Ichigo upside the head.

After seeing that happen, Shizuko's eyes widen and she slowly starts to calm down. The sparks dancing around her start to fade as she does this.

Shinji, as well as the rest of the vizards, stare wide eyed at the damage she's done in the few seconds she raged at Ichigo. Not only is the boulder completely destroyed, there are scorch marks around her from where the sparks hit the ground.

Shizuko is even surprised herself. She didn't know what to expect, but she didn't think that she would cause this much damage.

"Well, it looks like your Zanpakuto's ability is to control lightning. That is a very dangerous element. You may want to practice it more." She looks up to Hachi, who also looks a bit shock from the sudden attack.

"Yeah, I think I should do that, too." She has to be stupid to think that she doesn't need to practice this. That attack was because she got pissed off. She needs to control it more; otherwise she is going to cause a lot more damage than this. She can tell that already.

"I think one of us should take over from here." Shizuko and Ichigo look over to Shinji walking over to them.

"That is a very dangerous element, and Ichigo wouldn't be the best teacher to have at this point. He's having trouble controlling his own powers as it is."

Ichigo is a bit irked about that, but he can't deny it either.

"However, we're going to have to continue another day. It's almost night fall. Didn't you say you need to go back before that?"

This comes as a shock to her. She blames the blue sky in the training facility for throwing off her sense of time.

"You're right. I need to go. See ya!"

She shunpos over to the stairs and then up the stairs. She shunpos to outside the barrier, but, since someone might see her; she runs the rest of the way, keeping her reiastu down and her Zanpakuto hidden from other humans.

Shinji looks to where she disappeared to, amaze at how fast she left. He wonders if Yoruichi taught her shunpo. It would make sense.

He sighs. Her progress is astounding. It's hard to believe that she was rookie in the first place. Just who is she?


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey there, hi there, ho there! I forget where I heard that from, but I couldn't stop myself from saying it. Either way, I don't own that quote. What was I going to say again? Oh yeah, I'm back! And there's only two days to go before I go to Miami! As I said, I'm trying to post as many chapters as I can before this trip. Plus, the mystery behind Shizuko is starting to get to some of you (right…Fanime-Sensei ;)). Don't worry! The mystery will be solved! Just be patient a little longer. As a warning, this is the longest chapter I have ever written out of all of my stories. Well, anyway, time for the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 10

Shizuko has been coming over to the warehouse everyday for the past few days. She eventually remembered that she left her backpack and sketchbook there and retrieved it. It turns out that Hachi had been holding onto it. Of course, whatever food she had stored in there is gone, thanks to some of the vizards (they didn't admit to it, but she has a feeling who ate the food).

She is slowly but surely gaining control over the lightning that her Zanpakuto controls. She still has the stray bolt that comes out and nearly hits an innocent bystander, aka a vizard, but even those are becoming few and far between. She trains with one of the vizards to control her reiastu and Zanpakuto's power. She still does combat training with Ichigo, which is what she is currently doing.

Ichigo charges at her at full speed and swings his blade down. Instead of dodging like she should have, she ends up getting hit full force, a gash forming down her front and blood spraying from the wound. Ichigo is shocked.

"Hey! You were supposed to dodge or block it! Why did you just stand there?"

"Who said I did?"

Before it can register to Ichigo that the voice didn't come from the person in front of him, a foot places itself on the back of his head and he flies forward, landing in a face plant.

Shizuko then jumps off of Ichigo and lands while turning to face him.

The clone disappeared the second her foot made contact with his head.

Ichigo raises his head to see Shizuko standing in front of him, unscathed and silently gloating her victory.

"How did you do that? You got hit by Zangetsu."

She shakes her head as though he is a hopeless fool.

"You only think you hit me. You just hit a clone. I learned how to do that when Yoruichi taught me more about shunpo. All I did was go faster than usual to create it."

Ichigo is starting to make sense of this. Yoruichi is probably one of the fastest people he knows.

"So, Yoruichi trained you along with Urahara?"

"Well, if by train, you mean play tag using shunpo for hours, then yeah, she did train me."

Now that makes sense to Shinji. It would be just like Yoruichi to use tag as a way to improve someone's shunpo.

Something in Mashiro's mind clicks as she watches the scene. Something about the way she tackled him to the ground. She finally has it!

"I finally remembered!"

Everyone except Shizuko and Ichigo, who are still training, turn their attention to Mashiro.

"What do you remember?" Kensei is hoping it isn't something stupid.

"I remember where I know Shizuko from!"

Everyone is now paying close attention to Mashiro. She has been pondering this for days, and now they want to know how Mashiro knows this human.

"Where do you remember her from?" Lisa has put down her magazine to listen to this.

Mashiro is smiling brightly as the image of the person she remembers flashes through her mind.

"She is just like Shizuko!"

Several flat looks are now being directed at Mashiro.

"What do you mean? Her name is Shizuko, so how can she be anyone other than herself?" Love doesn't understand what Mashiro is getting at.

"I think you finally lost it, Mashiro."

"Whaaat? Kensei, you meany! You're soooooo stupid! You can't even remember her!"

Now Shinji is really confused.

"What are you talking about Mashiro?"

Now Mashiro is really shocked.

"Whaaat! You don't remember her? I'm surprised you didn't recognize her before I did."

"Mashiro, just spit it out already! What do you mean?" Hiyori is starting to run out of patience waiting for Mashiro to explain.

Mashiro huffs, clearly seeing that she is the only one who remembers.

"Don't you remember, Shinji? She was in your division. You dragged her along with you everywhere. She was Urahara's little sister!"

The realization hits Shinji as though a truck has suddenly run him over. He looks over to Shizuko. She is still fighting Ichigo; neither of them is listening to the conversation.

Shinji can see it now. She does look like Shizuko Urahara, his former fourth seat.

"Oh yeah! I remember her now. Wasn't she your fourth seat?" Lisa remembers her now. She was a blonde shinigami that Shinji always dragged along with him around the Seireitei. If she remembers correctly, she was actually pretty powerful.

"That's right. You were going to recommend her for a Taicho's position, weren't you?" Rose remembers her as well. She had been a handful for Shinji a couple of times.

A dark cloud forms over Shinji's thoughts as he stared at Shizuko. He can't believe he didn't see it before. She looks just like her. Well, minus the shinigami outfit.

But, the Shizuko they knew…

"What did happen to her? Didn't she disappear during a mission?" Love has hit the mark. She did disappear, shortly before that night a hundred years ago. She was never found.

"What was she doing on a mission? I thought she was supposed to take the Taichos exam."

"She was." It is Hiyori who is talking now. For some reason, she looks pissed off and…sad at the same time.

This surprises Shinji. He gets why she would be sad. Since her brother was the Taicho of 12th division, she spent a lot of time over at 12th division. Hiyori started to regard her as somewhat of a sister when she disappeared. But, why does she look so mad?

"The day before she disappeared, she was over at the research lab, seeing what we were doing. After a while, she was told that she had to go check out some unusual hollow activity somewhere far out in Rukongai."

Shinji still doesn't get that part. He didn't assign her any missions. He didn't intend to since she was supposed to be a Taicho soon after that.

"She said that she had something else that she needed to do soon and couldn't accept any missions on short notice. However, he said that if it went well, she would be back by the next morning. He even said that a shinigami of her caliber would be able to do it alone, and that backup wasn't needed."

Shinji is starting to tense up. Who sent her on this mission?

"Who gave her the order?" asks Lisa. At first, everyone looks to Shinji. He sees this and says, "I didn't give her any orders. I had no intention to since she was supposed to become the Taicho of 10th division soon after that day." He is, of course, referring to the day she didn't come back.

Hiyori tenses up even more hearing this. Now she is pissed.

Shinji notices this. He then remembers that Hiyori was with her when she was given the order.

"Hiyori, who gave her that mission?" He wants to know, damn it! He couldn't believe when he heard the news that she disappeared, that she was assumed dead by Soul Society. She was so strong. He couldn't see how any hollow was able to take her down.

Hiyori looks over at Shinji. He has a very dark look on his face. She can't blame him. She was his favorite subordinate, despite the fact that she sometimes caused trouble for him.

She looks down from him. She doesn't want to tell him who it was, as it would only make his guilt worse. He already feels bad enough about what happened to them. She doesn't want to make him feel worse about it.

"Come on Hiyori. Who was it?" She knows that he won't stop until he gets an answer. There's no point in not telling him now.

"Aizen."

That one word makes everyone else go stiff.

Shinji can't believe his ears. She vanished…because of Aizen. That bastard…sent her out alone on a mission she never returned from.

Everyone else is shocked by this, but, after thinking about it, it doesn't seem so surprising. She disappeared a few days before they became vizards. Aizen must have wanted to use her as a test subject or something, and when it was over, he killed her.

They look over at Shinji. They know now why Hiyori was a bit reluctant to give them the name. Shinji has already been beating himself up for what happened to them because he couldn't stop him. They can't imagine what he must be feeling now.

Shinji is looking down at the ground, still processing what he heard. Aizen…killed Shizuko. Or, at the very least, made sure she died.

He can't stop the trembling that slowly takes over his body. It's his fault. If he had stopped Aizen's plans back then, none of them would be vizards and Shizuko would still be…

He looks up to the girl who is now sparring with Ichigo. She is the spitting image of the Shizuko they all once knew. She must be a reincarnation. However, if her reincarnation's here, that means that Aizen didn't make her hollowfy, which caused so many souls to disintegrate. That is his only relief. It means that she didn't go through such pain before her death.

However, it also means that she has no memory of them. She won't understand the pain that can be seen in his eyes right now. He wonders how Urahara felt when he found her. He must have recognized her immediately, and the fact that she looks like his only sister must have been why he didn't raise any protests about training her.

Mashiro sees the look on his face. She understands why he's sad. She had been upset herself losing one of her friends. However, Shinji had been really close to her, almost like a second brother.

Hiyori hates the look she sees on Shinji's face right now. It wasn't his fault, damn it! She feels partly at fault because she just told her to get it over with since that would be the last order she'd have to take from him.

"Figures it was Aizen that did it. After all, he was following her quite a bit around the Seireitei." Shinji is surprised by the news Mashiro is giving him.

"I would never notice until Shizuko pointed him out. She was very annoyed by the fact he kept stalking her throughout the Seireitei. She was always polite towards him whenever they were out in public, but I could tell that she really wanted to bite his head off. He kept trying to get her alone by saying he had something he needed to talk to her about, but she always came up with some kind of excuse to avoid it."

This is the first time Shinji is hearing about this.

"Why haven't I been told before? I could have helped her out." Shinji wants to know why she never came for help.

"I asked her myself why she didn't report him, even if he was her superior, but she always said that it was her problem to deal with. She didn't want to bother anyone else about it."

Shinji slightly grits his teeth. It would be like her to say that.

"I don't think she ever trusted him. I asked her why, but she just said that she had her own reasons."

Hiyori remembers the look on Shizuko's face before she left for the last time.

"I remembered that, before she left, she had a look on her face that said that she didn't trust him. I can tell she didn't want to go, but I told her to get it over with, saying that it would be the last order she would take from him, anyway."

Shinji looks over at Hiyori, who is looking down at her lap. She had been one of the last people to see her alive. She probably blames herself a bit for telling her to get the mission over with. He isn't going to blame her. She couldn't have known. He had known all along that Aizen was up to something. If he had known that Aizen was after Shizuko…

Hachi gets up, catching everyone else's attention. Shinji is looking towards the Shizuko that is training with Ichigo.

"I'm going to go get lunch."

"I'll go with you." Mashiro volunteers, wanting to help Hachi. They both look towards everyone else. The only person that hasn't responded is Shinji. He continues to watch the fight between the two humans, both oblivious to the revelation the others had.

Hachi and Mashiro leave without him noticing.

She looks like she is having fun messing with Ichigo. He finally finds out what it is about her that as been nagging at him. However, the realization has sent him into a mode of depression.

...

15 minutes later, Shizuko decides to test something out on Ichigo. She runs up to get right in his face. Ichigo is surprised by this, but doesn't hesitate in trying to attack her. However, as he prepares to swing his arm, she reaches up to grab his arm and gives him a little shock. Ichigo winces, and before he knows it, she flips him so that he lands on his back behind her.

She stands over him looking down at him, as though waiting for something.

"Don't get so cocky now. I'm going to get you when I…"

A realization slowly dawns on him. He keeps trying to will himself up, but to no avail. What just happened?

"Have you figured it out yet?"

Ichigo looks back up to see her curiously staring down at him.

"You can't move, can you?"

"…How did you do that?"

She sighs as she thinks back to how Shadobisuto explained this to her.

"You know that the nervous system is made up of electrical impulses that send signals from the brain to the rest of the body, right?"

Ichigo nods, wondering what she's getting at.

"Well, what I did was interrupt that system by sending a few volts through your body from your arm, which resulted in paralyzing your body. However, I have to be careful with this technique, because if I hit you directly in the heart, there is a chance that it would kill you."

"If there was a chance of that, then why did you test it out on me?"

She shrugs.

"I wasn't going to hit you in the chest with the attack in the first place. Plus, from what I gather about you, you're too stubborn to die that easily anyway."

He isn't completely sure if that was a compliment or not.

He continues to try to make himself move.

"The paralysis is going to last a couple of minutes, so we might as well go ahead and take a break." She takes her seat on a boulder not too far from him.

Just as he starts to get feeling back in his legs, Mashiro and Hachi return with food.

"Lunch is here!"

Shizuko gets up and starts walking over to where the others are.

"Hurry up, Strawberry! Your food's gonna get cold!"

She says that to torment him. She has taken to the habit of calling him Strawberry, mainly because she knows it annoys him.

Why that little…She's the one that put him in this state in the first place. After about another two minutes, he's able to get up and join the group for lunch.

Shizuko has already gotten her food and takes a seat next to Mashiro. She starts eating her food when she realizes that something is off here. Not with the food, but with the atmosphere. She looks around at the others. They seem to be acting normal. Then it hits her, it's too quiet. Some kind of chaos usually erupts during lunch, whether it was Hiyori beating Ichigo or Shinji shitless, Love and Rose arguing over a manga, or everybody bashing on Ichigo over the fact that the progress on his training is slow.

Even Mashiro isn't being her usual, childish self! What the hell is going on here? Did something happen while she and Ichigo were training?

…Did someone die?

She slowly eats her food as she tries to make sense of this picture. Then…she sees Shinji.

There is a look in his eyes. He looks…depressed. Over what, though? Throughout lunch, she notices that that look has been directed at her. It looks like…pity? Does he pity her? Why, when she has been doing so well? Or, is it self-pity? That seems to be more likely. For some reason, the whole notion pisses her off. Yeah, she barely knows the guy, but she has a feeling that he doesn't normally act like this. That he shouldn't be acting like this.

She manages to mask her newfound anger from the others, but she doesn't know how long she can keep up the façade.

Once everyone has eaten and the dishes are done (once again by Ichigo), Hiyori stands up to start training Ichigo, and Shizuko stands up, waiting for someone to be her partner. Nobody is making a move to do so.

Now she is having extreme difficulty at hiding her annoyance. She looks around.

Love is reading a manga. Rose is listening to music. Lisa is reading a book this time. Kensei is rewrapping the bandages around his arms.

The only ones not doing anything are Mashiro, Shinji, and Hachi. She really doesn't want to fight Hachi, so she starts going between the other two.

Mashiro is being unusually quiet. This is starting to scare her.

She looks over to Shinji. He is looking down at the ground. When he does look up at her, it's with that same look of self-pity. And that's the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Unable to contain her annoyance, she stomps over to Shinji.

Shinji stares at her, wondering what she is going to do. He doesn't see the slight fury in her eyes as she grabs the back of his head and pulls it down into a headbutt.

Shinji falls to his knees, clutching his head as a bruise starts to form. He looks back up to her, angry and confused. He sees a bruise forming on her forehead as well, but she is putting up a tough front. She's not going to do what he's doing right now.

"What the hell was that for?"

She glares down at him, as if he should already know the answer.

"I don't like that look on your face."

"Huh?" At first, he doesn't get what she means.

"What are you talking about?"

This only makes her angrier.

"I'm talking about that look of self-pity that you've had since lunch started!"

Shinji is taken aback. Oh shit. She's mad because he couldn't keep a depressed look off his face.

But, he isn't going to explain himself to her. She wouldn't understand. There's no way that she can understand.

"You wouldn't understand."

That gets him a kick to the stomach.

"I'm not asking you to explain yourself or to make me understand!"

Shinji looks up at her, trying to see what she's getting at.

"Whatever happened is your issue, not mine. However, I don't like the look that you had on your face just now. You don't seem yourself like that."

Shinji stares up with wide eyes. She wants him to act like himself?

"I'll give you some advice. It's not good for you to keep your head in the past. I'm not asking you to drop it. I'm just asking you to focus more on the now and not the then."

She is pretty sure that he is beating himself up over something. To her, there's not much point in obsessing over something you can't change.

Then again, that could be because she can't obsess over her own past.

Shinji can see that she is trying to help him. Since she doesn't know what he knows, she is trying to make him feel better by giving him advice on a problem she thinks he has. This is exactly what the old Shizuko would have done as well. She hated seeing her Taicho in such a state.

"Fine, I'll try."

Shizuko isn't overly convinced, but she'll have to take it for now.

"Hey Mashiro, want to come train with me?"

Mashiro is still floored by what Shizuko just did, but, nevertheless, she nods and follows her to a clearing in the underground facility.

Shinji sits there staring at the two. For a moment there, he saw his actual fourth seat. As the two walk off, Shinji smiles a small smile.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi! Sorry it took me so long to put up another chapter. I know, I said the trip was only a week long. It was….I just got sidetracked afterwards.**

**On a side note, Baccano! is awesome! No one can beat Claire! This is a very good anime. Warning: the anime is rated MA. If you can't stand blood and gore, then either don't watch or advert your eyes when watching (it's what I did). **

**Anyway, as a notice for all of you reading this (if you even bother with the A/N in the first place), I may be taking a break from this story to update the others. Yes, it's been a while since I updated this and the Death Note story, but my FMA story as been seriously neglected. Hopefully, you won't kill me if I pay attention to my other stories for a while. I promise to get back to this story, though. I am going to see this to the end. Anyway, I've rambled on long enough.**

**Oh! Quick question: is it weird that my stories are in present tense? I didn't think much of it until I read other stories and saw them all in past tense. Should I switch to past tense? This I would like a response to.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 11

The next day, Shizuko and Ichigo are training as they usually do. Shizuko jumps back to dodge one of Ichigo's attacks and lands about ten feet in the air.

Ichigo looks around, expecting her to land on the ground. When she doesn't, Ichigo looks up. Shizuko looks a bit confused.

"Hey, looks like you can walk on air now." Shizuko blinks then looks down. A wave of dizziness sweeps over her. This causes her to lose her footing and fall to the ground.

Ichigo runs forward, concerned.

"Hey! Are you okay?" The answer he gets is a rock smacking him right in the face.

He holds his nose, now pissed off.

"What the hell was that for?"

"That was for the vertigo, you jackass!"

"What, you're afraid of heights!"

"No! I just like to randomly fall from the sky!"

After a series of rocks being hurtled at Ichigo and Shizuko ranting up a storm, they decide to break early before lunch arrives. They still have to wait for Love and Rose to get back, though, so Shizuko decides to rest her eyes for a bit.

Half an hour later, Love and Rose still haven't come back yet, and Shizuko is fast asleep.

Hiyori decides that, since lunch is late, she and Ichigo should train until they arrive. She, of course, initiates this by smacking him in the face with her sandal.

It's when they start training that Mashiro realizes something.

"Where did Shizuko go?"

Shinji looks up, realizing that the girl is nowhere to be found.

"She's sleeping behind a boulder over there." Lisa raises her hand from her book and points out the boulder in question.

Shinji walks over there and peers around the boulder. Just as Lisa said, she is right there, fast asleep. She actually looks a bit troubled, like she's having some sort of bad dream.

However, it isn't really a dream she is having.

_Damn it! Not again._

Blurry images come in and out of focus through her mind's eye. She can't see anything clearly. It's too soon for any of the scenes to happen, as she had learned from past experiences.

_I rather not see anything. I don't want to know. Can't I just live in peace without being bothered by them?_

Shinji hears Love and Rose shouting that they're back as they walk down the stairs. He looks over to Shizuko. She is still asleep. He decides that he needs to wake her up.

"Hey, Shizuko, it's time for lunch!" She doesn't answer. "Hey, wake up already! Do you want to go hungry?" Still no answer. He grins as he comes up with an idea of how to wake her up. He positions his hands at both sides of her abdomen. If she is anything like the Shizuko he knew, then she is really ticklish.

"Time to wake up now!" As he leans forward to tickle her, her fist comes up and hits him square in the face. With the force she used, he flies back and tumbles along the ground until he hits a boulder that is sitting straight across from Shizuko.

Lisa, who came over to see what was taking them, sees this and looks over to Shizuko. She is still asleep with her fist up in front of her.

Shizuko slowly opens her eyes and yawns. She rubs her eyes and takes a look around. She could have sworn that something woke her up. And, why is her hand sore?

"Hey! What the hell was that for!" She looks up to see Shinji buried in a mass of rocks. What happened?

"What do you mean?"

Shinji gets up from the rubble, disbelief written on his face.

"What do I mean? I mean, why the hell did you punch me?"

Now she is really confused. Did she really punch him? She looks over to Lisa.

"Did I really do that?"

Lisa nods.

"Oh…sorry Shinji. My bad." That explains the sore hand.

Shinji is still a bit peeved, but he drops it for now.

Shizuko manages to beat Shinji to lunch. Her training with Yoruichi really paid off. She hasn't done dishes any of the times she ate there. She happily eats her food along with Mashiro, who is annoying Kensei at the same time. She is wondering if she should join her. She has to admit, Kensei is fun to annoy. She tends to side with Mashiro because it's so fun. She also tends to side with Hiyori whenever she gets "slap-happy" with Shinji by saying that he was asking for it.

She does this all so easily, as if she's done them before….

Another headache throbs through her head as the thought crosses her mind. Damn these headaches! She has managed to hide most of them from the others, but she isn't always successful with the migraine-inducing ones.

This is one of those times. This one even came with images trying to be seen with her mind's eye. It's like trying to see a scene on a fuzzy TV screen.

She sees, or she thinks she sees, someone with green hair wearing black clothing. She can't tell who the person is. Another flash and she sees two spots of yellow. One seems to be violently shaking while the other is down on the ground. One is wearing black while the other is wearing white. What the hell is she seeing?

The images soon fade into nothingness, and she can now clearly see the looks being directed at her. They are looks of concern, confusion, and worry, but those are mainly coming from Mashiro, Shinji, Ichigo, and Hachi.

"Maybe you should take the rest of the day off from training. You seem to be getting these headaches quite frequently. Are you sure they are nothing?"

She looks up at Hachi with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, they are nothing to worry about. I'll be fine. I can still train. I don't need a break."

Shinji and Mashiro are still not convinced, but don't pursue the issue any further. She has, so far, been doing fine with her training despite the headaches. Still…

"Are you sure?"

Shizuko looks over at Shinji who suddenly gets up and starts walking towards her. She has no idea what he's planning on doing until he wraps his arms around her shoulders and pulls her into a one arm hug.

"Uhhhh…..Shinji, what are you doing?"

Shinji looks over to her with, as Hiyori tends to refer to it as, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"What? I'm just concerned. I don't want anything happen to my first love now, do I?"

This statement is met by flat looks coming from a couple of people, one of them being Shizuko.

She is not buying the whole "first love" thing, not one bit. But, why does she feel somewhat relieved by this? She should be slapping him in the face or something. She doesn't know. But that doesn't mean that she shouldn't do something.

She looks over to the others, who look annoyed by this. She has a feeling this is his everyday behavior. Is that why she's relieved? But why should she care? Why did she care so much the other day when he was depressed by something? This is giving her a headache.

She sighs.

"Is he always like this?" she asks the others.

Seeing all of them nod, she finally decides on something.

"Then I won't feel bad if I do this."

Shinji looks over to her confused. He's about to ask what she means when he's suddenly electrocuted.

Three seconds later, Shinji is laying down on the ground smoking, and Shizuko is walking off to see who will train with her now.

"That was kinda harsh, wasn't it?" Love looks down at the smoldering Shinji.

Shizuko shrugs.

"He'll live."

She walks over to Mashiro. She's normally available.

"Hey Mashiro, want to train?"

Mashiro nods and gets up to go train with her.

"Hold it!"

Both girls turn around to see Shinji walking over to them. He has a serious look on his face.

"Shizuko, I think you should try something new today."

This catches her attention.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Mashiro, train Shizuko while wearing your mask."

This catches a few people by surprise.

"Shinji, are you sure about that?" Lisa asks from her perch.

Shinji nods.

"You are improving at an unprecedented rate. I just want to see how you hold up against one of us with a mask on. Mashiro can keep her mask on the longest, so she's the best to train with."

Shizuko understands what he's saying. To be frank, she wants to see how much more she needs to improve before she can take on an arrancar. The vizards are probably a bit stronger, but she's not going to complain. She needs to be ready in case they come back again. If she can beat them, then she knows she can take the arrancars on.

"Okay, I'm in."

Shinji nods. She'll probably be pummeled into the ground, but she needs to know the difference in strength so she doesn't do something stupid, like something Ichigo would do regardless.

Shizuko and Mashiro walk to a clearing nearby.

"Shizuko, you ready?"

Shizuko unsheathes Shadobisuto and braces herself.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Mashiro nods then raises her hand over her face. She rips it down and a mask materializes.

Shizuko didn't know what to expect, but she is surprised by the amount of reaistu that exploded forth from Mashiro the moment the mask came on.

She almost misses the moment when Mashiro suddenly appears before her about to attack.

Her barrier springs into action. As soon as Mashiro's leg hits the barrier, Shizuko shunpos away and prepares for the next attack.

Shizuko has never realized how fast Mashiro is, or maybe it's because of the mask.

Shinji watches as Shizuko starts to get pounded by Mashiro. He'll admit that he doesn't like watching her get pounded into the ground, but this is necessary. She needs to know the difference in strength before she pulls an Ichigo.

Shizuko can't tell if a few minutes has passed or a few seconds. She is having her ass handed to her. Is she really this weak compared to them? Does this mean that she doesn't stand a fighting chance against those that are hunting her? She doesn't want to believe it. She has to be stronger. She has to be able to win.

Suddenly, a strange aura starts emanating from Shadobisuto. Shizuko doesn't understand what's happening. Is she starting to get stronger? She's now blocking more of Mashiro's attacks. Her mind is starting to go blank as her body starts to go on autopilot.

_**Shizuko! Pull back! You're going to be in trouble!**_

Shizuko is surprised at hearing Shadobisuto. She hasn't spoken to her since she showed her what she is capable of.

_What do you mean?_

_**I mean that my power is going to overwhelm you if you keep up this fight!**_

Now she's really confused.

_What do you mean! Your power is the ability to control lightning, isn't it? I haven't even used it yet. How will it overwhelm me?_

Shadobisuto is exasperated at this point.

_**No! I told you not to misunderstand that! I can do that, but that is not my true power!**_

Shizuko is starting to panic now.

_What do you mean? What is your-_

She doesn't have a chance to finish. Something black and shadowy forms around Shadobisuto, and then something black jumps out of her and lands on the ground.

Everyone who is watching saw it. It is now a formless mass on the ground, but what is it?

Shinji has a bad feeling about this. It came out of her Zanpakuto, but it isn't radiating anything good. The reiastu feels familiar, but he can't place it.

Mashiro stops what she's doing and takes her mask off.

Shizuko turns to stare at the mass on the ground. It is starting to take form. What is it?

"Hey, Shizuko, what the hell is that?"

She doesn't take her eyes off the shape-shifting mass as she answers Shinji.

"I don't know. I didn't do this."

This raises several red flags among the vizards. Even Hiyori and Ichigo have stopped their training because they sensed something is wrong.

The black, shadowy mass finally takes on a humanoid form. It turns to face Shizuko. Suddenly a pair of almond-shaped, yellow eyes opens and sends a shiver down her spine. When she means yellow, she means that what is supposed to be the white of the eye is yellow. There are no pupils.

Before she can ask Shadobisuto what that thing is, the figure disappears.

Shizuko shunpos away on instinct, which is a good thing because a half a second later, the shadow thing slams its hand down on the ground where Shizuko was at. It lets out a hollow cry.

It is then that Shinji realizes why that thing's reiastu feels so familiar. It is the reiastu of a hollow.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hiya! I had originally said that I was going to take a break from this story to work on my other stories, but since one of you asked so nicely *cough-RogueSama-cough* I decided to give you guys at least one more update. Whether or not I become evil again and leave you guys with another cliffhanger, you will find out after reading this chapter.**

**For those of you that may or may not notice, I'm changing the story's verb tense. It will now be written in past tense. I tried doing the whole thing in present tense, but past tense is a whole lot easier to write out.**

**Now, without further ado….**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 12

Shizuko was scared. Wait, scratch that. She was terrified! That thing's reaistu felt just like a hollow's, and it was after her!

_What the hell is that thing!_

_**No time to explain. Just keep running away until its reiastu runs out.**_

She wasn't going to argue with her Zanpakuto. She didn't want to be near that thing. It was trying to kill her!

The shadow spotted her on a boulder and started to charge right for her.

The vizards and Ichigo sprung into action. They didn't know what was going on, but they couldn't have a hollow materialize on them now.

The first one to reach it was Mashiro. She shunpoed right next to it and aimed a kick at the shadowy creature. However, instead of hitting it, her leg went right _through_ it. It wasn't phased by the attack. It didn't pay any heed to Mashiro. It only had eyes for Shizuko.

It spotted her on a boulder a few meters away and went right for her. Shizuko shunpoed away as it came upon her. Whatever that thing was, it was fast.

This time Shinji was the one to attack it. He swung his Zanpakuto down at it and it went right through the thing. His eyes widened as he saw that physical attacks weren't going to work on the thing.

He jumped away from it. They needed to contain the thing before it caught Shizuko.

"Hachi, trap it in a barrier!"

Hachi complied. Before the creature could react, it was trapped in a cube-shaped barrier that surrounded it and the boulder it was perched on. Shinji thought as he watched it look around, searching for its target.

He didn't know what it was. It had the reiastu of a hollow, yet it didn't have a mask. What was more was the fact that it came from Shizuko's Zanpakuto. He had never heard of anything like this. Did this mean she had an inner hollow? But, if she did, they would have sensed it they moment they met her. Plus, none of their inner hollows ever materialized themselves before, so what was it if it was not an inner hollow?

They would have to investigate this later. They needed to kill this thing now, before it found a way out.

The creature inside didn't pay any mind to the barrier that surrounded it. It barely noticed Shinji when he attacked it. There was only one thing it was after.

And it found her. She was off to the side, away from everyone else, several meters away in a clearing. If it was fast enough, it could reach her before anyone else could try to interfere.

Being a shadow had its advantages. Physical attacks had no effect on a shadow, so fights could be one-sided if it was capable of much damage, which it really wasn't. Also, barriers had no meaning to shadows.

This caught everyone by surprise as the shadow rushed _through_ the barrier and went at Shizuko at full speed.

It didn't register to Shizuko that the thing escaped the barrier until it was ten feet away. She froze. She wanted to run. Her mind was screaming at her body to run, but her legs refused to move. They stayed, locked in place as the shadow creature came closer.

Just as it was about five feet away, Ichigo came in between it and Shizuko. The shadow didn't slow down. As it came upon him, Ichigo stepped forward and swung his blade down. However, his blade just went through as with the others. What was more; the shadow didn't stop as it went through Ichigo and appeared before Shizuko on the other side.

It jumped forward and wrapped it fingers around her throat. It finally stopped in its tracks as it raised Shizuko off of her feet. It cried out in victory.

Shizuko had dropped her Zanpakuto when it grabbed her throat. She didn't know what to do. She was caught and didn't have Shadobisuto in her hand. Suddenly, she was starting to feel weaker. She looked down at the shadow creature to see something forming on its face.

It was white and was starting to develop into some sort of mask. It started on the right side of its face and was slowly progressing across the eyes. There seemed to be something blue developing around the eyes.

Shizuko was terrified. This thing was feeding on her reiastu. She knew that it wouldn't stop until she was out. At that point, she would…

Ichigo turned around to see Shizuko dangling in the shadow's grasp and unable to do anything. He tensed when he felt the thing draining her reiastu. It was now forming a tail and what appeared to be wings. However, it seemed that the more reiastu it absorbed, the more solid it got. He needed to attack it before Shizuko was completely drained.

He slashed at its back. As he thought, it was now solid. The creature screamed out in pain as a gash from its right shoulder down to the left side of its hip formed.

However, just as soon as the blood spurted out of the shadow's wound, blood spurted out of Shizuko's back. Ichigo's eyes widened. Somehow, when he hurt the creature, Shizuko got the same wound. What the hell was happening?

The creature didn't relinquish its grip on Shizuko's throat. If anything, it started draining her reiastu at a faster rate. She wasn't going to last much longer. Nobody knew what to do. They could only watch helplessly as Shizuko's life was drained away.

_What do I do? Surely, you know how..._

_**The mask! You need to destroy the mask before it's completed!**_

_How do I do that? It's already halfway done._

_**Raise your hand in front of its face and focus your energy into it! I'll help you out!**_

Shizuko did as she was told. She was starting to feel too weak to do that even, but she watched as a red ball of energy formed at her hand. She knew this move. She had seen some shinigami do this.

Before her strength reached its limit, she shouted, "Hado 33, Shakkaho!" and the ball of energy exploded forward, destroying the nearly completed mask. The shadow creature then disintegrated, and Shizuko fell to the ground.

Ichigo ran up to her and turned her over. She passed out, but she was still alive. He breathed a sigh of relief. She was ok, but what happened to that thing? He looked up to see that everyone else was gathered around. Shinji stepped forward to examine her. She was fine, but he still remembered the gash that appeared on her back. Hachi remembered too, which was why he was right behind him, so he could heal her wounds and hopefully figure out what caused a hollow-like creature to come out of her Zanpakuto.

Shinji turned her over so that Hachi could take care of the gash, only to find that it was already halfway healed. This was a surprise.

"Ichigo, did that creature's wound started to heal as it drained her reiastu?"

Ichigo looked up at Hachi as he remembered. He could barely see the wound on it, since there were really no distinguishable features on the shadow creature, but the gash he made was healing after his attack.

"Yeah, it was. Why would Shizuko get the same wound as it in the first place?"

"That's what we want to know," said Shinji. He really didn't know what to think of this. Was she some sort of vizard like them? Did Aizen do something to her? What the hell was that thing?

"Hachi, is there any hollow-like reiastu in her right now?"

Hachi focused on her reiastu as he finished healing her wound.

"No, there isn't anything hollow-like about her right now."

"Then what the hell was that thing!" yelled Hiyori.

"We don't know, but we're going to find out." They were going to have to wait for Shizuko to wake up before they ask any questions.

Hachi got up.

"She's going to be fine. She just needs to rest. Perhaps someone should put her on the couch upstairs. It could be a while until she comes to."

Shinji got up and picked Shizuko up bridal style.

"I'll do it."

Shinji turned to walk towards the stairs. Everyone watched as he walked up the stairs.

He walked over to where the couch was and set her down. He stared down at her while a few memories came back to him. He really missed his old fourth seat. He hated the fact that Aizen killed her, or was at least responsible for her death. It was just one more thing that he could have prevented had he been able to stop Aizen. And now, he was hunting down her reincarnation. Was she never going to get any peace? All the more reason to kill Aizen at the upcoming war, if not to make it up for the fourth seat he let down.

He turned around and headed towards the stairs. He wasn't going to let Aizen get to her if he could help it.

...

Shizuko slowly woke up in a place that she had never been before. She was lying down on the ground in the middle of a forest. She slowly sat up and took a better look around at her surroundings. There are trees everywhere. It looked like it was late evening with the lighting and the positions of the trees' shadows. It was very quiet.

She got up on her feet. She didn't know what happened. All she remembered was passing out after the shadow/hollow thing disappeared.

_Shadobisuto, where am I?_

"**You are in your inner world."**

Shizuko jumped slightly at hearing her voice outside of her head for once. She looked around, but she saw no one there.

"My inner world?"

"**Yes. This is where I reside. You are still out cold in the outer world from your encounter with the shadow hollow."**

So that was a hollow. But something didn't seem right about that.

"So, does that mean I have an inner hollow, like the vizards do?"

"**No. That was a result from your spar with one of them. You took in too much reiastu in that fight."**

Shizuko was confused. She was also exasperated. What was she talking about?

"What are you talking about? Will you please explain to me what is going on? What is your power? How did I know how to do that one spell thing? And don't say that you helped me! I know that you didn't! What are you hiding from me?"

It was true. She sensed that Shadobisuto had been hiding something from her for a while now. She wouldn't tell her what her power was, only showed her the lightning and she misunderstood. She also sensed that Shadobisuto didn't do anything when she blasted the shadow hollow's mask off. That was all her.

There was silence for a while.

"...**My true power is the ability to shadow others. You will find out what I mean by that when you tap into it. As for the spell and everything else I may be hiding, it is too soon to tell you. Trust me when I tell you that."**

She didn't like it, but she supposed that she wasn't going to get any other answer out of her.

"...I'll trust you on that. However, you're not being really fair about this."

"**Like you're one to talk. You've been with these people for a while now, but you haven't told them about **_**that**_**, now have you? You can't complain about me when you're keeping secrets as well."**

Shizuko looked down. She was right. She had been keeping secrets as well. But, it's not as if they would understand if she told them. There was no way she could tell them.

"**Actually, you would be surprised by how much they'll understand if you told them."**

She looked up, only to remember that no one was there.

"How do you know that they'll understand? How can they understand? I'm supposed to be a human to them, remember?"

"**Trust me. They'll understand. They're going to ask about your past sooner or later anyway. Just tell them the truth when they do."**

"...Are you sure?"

"**I'm sure. If not, I'll tell you everything."**

That seemed to be a fair trade. Understanding friends or a better understanding of what's going on. She was going to have to go with it.

"Okay. I'll tell them."

There was silence for a while. It was then that Shizuko realized that she had no idea how to get back.

"Hey, how do I get back to the real world?"

"**Just relax and go back to sleep. It'll be a while until you can actually wake up on the outside."**

Well, she guessed that she didn't have any other choice. She picked a nearby tree and sat with her back against it. She closed her eyes and eventually drifted to sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

**Yo! Sorry it took me a while. Classes started and I had to hit the ground running in one of my classes. Oh, well. FYI, I decided that this point of the story was as good as any to go to the Turn Back The Pendulum arc, so you're about to read the back story on the Shizuko the vizards knew. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, so let me know what you think!**

**You guys wanted the update, so here it is!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 13

About 110 years ago

Sigh. So far, this had been a very boring day to a certain fourth seat. She had been stuck doing paperwork for who knows how long, when her lazy-ass Taicho decided to skip out on the paperwork (again) and go for a walk.

Of course, as always, he asked if she wanted to come along. She wasn't about to complain because she had been stuck inside _all day_.

She could only sit still for so long, as the few people that knew her already knew.

So, she was currently walking down a random street in the Sereitei with her Taicho and, unfortunately, her Fukutaicho. Although she would go through the motions and be polite to him in public, trying to be the epitome of a calm spirit, on the inside, she was holding a Zanpakuto to his throat.

It wasn't that she thought he was up to something. She _knew_ he was up to something, something terrible. She didn't know exactly what it was, but she knew it was big.

As much as she despised them, she wished the images in her head would be clear on that so she could find something to pin on him. It was the only time she actually wanted to see something, even though she hated this so-called gift of hers. Hated it with a passion.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw something from the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see someone familiar.

"No way….."

"What was that, Shizuko?"

By the time Shinji turned around, his fourth seat had disappeared.

Oh crap. This wasn't good. She tended to do something out of boredom that, more often than not, got her into trouble with someone.

Kisuke Urahara was walking down a street with his Fukutaicho, who was, of course, not too happy about being dragged around by an idiot like him. Their walk probably would have been somewhat peaceful, if it wasn't for…..

"Niiiii-saaaaaaan!" A blonde blur suddenly hit Urahara square in the back and he flew forward a couple of feet before skidding against the ground.

Hiyori looked up in time to see her new Taicho flat on the ground in front of her with a shinigami with long blonde hair crouched on his back.

"What the-!"

"Ni-san, is that really you?"

Urahara was slowly getting up, at which point his sister, Shizuko, jumped off to let him up.

"Why yes, it is. What, you can't recognize your own Ni-san?"

"Ni-san!" Hiyori was surprised.

Shizuko rolled her eyes.

"No, what I'm saying is why are you wearing a Taicho's haori? You're not a Taicho, are you?"

Urahara smiled.

"Why, yes I am. I just became a Taicho yesterday."

Shizuko gave him a flat look.

"No, really, why are you wearing a haori?"

Urahara put on a shocked and hurt look on his face.

"What, you don't believe me? You don't believe I could be a Taicho?"

Shizuko, again, rolled her eyes, not fazed at all by the look on his face.

"No, I knew you could be a Taicho. But I also _know_ you. Let me guess, Yoruichi signed you up to take the exam and then told you afterwards, right?"

Urahara grinned.

"You know me so well."

Shizuko grinned and nodded.

"But I also know you. I know you're just as capable of being a Taicho, if you just-."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's going on here!"

Both siblings turned their heads to Hiyori, who looked a bit lost in the conversation.

"Oh, sorry Sarugaki-san. This is my younger sister, Shizuko. Shizuko, this is my Fukutaicho, Hiyori Sarugaki."

Hiyori took another look at her. She had blonde hair down to her waist tied in a low ponytail. She also had deep blue eyes. She also wore the traditional shinigami outfit and had her Zanpakuto tied to her at her waist.

Shizuko waved a hand at her.

"Hey."

"Sister! You never said you have a sister!"

"…..You never asked." Urahara said that with a straight face.

Hiyori looked like she was going to blow.

"Don't worry. I know he can be frustrating at times."

Hiyori looked towards Shizuko to see her smiling back at her.

"If you need my help straightening him out, just give me a call."

Urahara had put on another hurt look on his face.

"Shizuko, you're so mean~!"

She looked back at him.

"I'm your sister. I'm allowed to be mean to you."

Shizuko looked back at Hiyori to see her look away from her, a stubborn look on her face.

_Hmmm….something tells me Ni-san is going to have fun with her._

"Hey! There you are!"

Shizuko turned around to see her Taicho running down the street towards her.

Oh yeah, she was taking a walk with him. She also saw Aizen right behind him. She mentally told herself to not try to kill him in front of so many witnesses.

Shinji stopped to see that she was with Kisuke, the new Taicho of 12th division, and the little monster known as Hiyori.

"Hey, Taicho."

He focused his attention on her.

"Why did you take off like that? I thought you were going to do something stupid to piss someone else off…..again."

She looked hurt.

"Whaaaat! I can't just walk up to my Ni-san to say hello once in a while. I'm hurt that you think that of me."

Shinji was not buying her act. Neither was Hiyori. She heard Shinji tell stories about her. She typically did go off and piss someone off out of boredom. Shinji would sometimes get in trouble for not keeping a close eye on his fourth seat. So, whenever he went somewhere, he would ask Shizuko to come along to keep an eye on her.

Hiyori also saw a resemblance between the two siblings with the way they acted when accused of something. Apparently, they _were_ related.

Shinji frowned.

"Ni-san? You're related to the new Taicho? Why didn't you say so?"

Shizuko gave him a flat look.

"You never said who the new Taicho was."

Aizen walked up to Shinji.

"Her last name's Urahara, remember Taicho?"

Shinji shrugged it off.

"Whatever. Besides that, I _know_ you. So don't even think off putting on that act."

Nobody but Shizuko saw it. Aizen had smirked at Shinji's comment. This made her wary. But she didn't let it show on her face.

She shrugged.

"You got me, but I'm not the only one slacking off from paperwork, now, am I?"

Shinji's eyes narrowed slightly. She was his only subordinate that dared to talk back at him. She was lucky she was his favorite. However, now he was going to have to think of a way to get back at her for this later.

"Whatever, let's get going."

Shizuko smirked, knowing she had got him there.

"Well, later Ni-san. Later Hiyori."

Hiyori was a bit peeved that she would use her first name, especially since she was ranked above her, but Urahara had put a hand on her shoulder.

"Just let it go. She likes to be informal like that towards people she considers her friends."

Hiyori's eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly shook it off.

"Whatever."

"Later, Shizuko."

Just as Shizuko and her superiors were about to walk back, Aizen suddenly spoke up.

"Actually, there is something I need to discuss with Urahara-san. We'll be right behind you."

Shinji almost tensed. He didn't trust Aizen. Not one bit. He knew that Shizuko was a lot more capable than she let everybody else believe. He didn't know how much because he never confronted her about it, but he thought she would be ok. Plus, he didn't think Aizen would dare do anything to her while letting his Taicho know that he was with her.

But, he still didn't like the idea of Aizen being alone with her. She was like a sister to him, and he didn't warn her about Aizen. He was hoping to keep her out of it.

However, before Shinji could say anything, Shizuko suddenly spotted someone in the background.

_Yes! You are now officially my hero of the week!_

"Actually, I'm afraid we're going to have to do that some other time. I have plans with Mashiro and I shouldn't keep her waiting. I'll see you later."

And with that, she was off. It was true. She was planning on doing something with Mashiro. However, Mashiro was still working. She was walking with Kensei, her Taicho, right now, probably to go get some work done.

But, something told her that being alone with Aizen was a very bad idea. She needed an excuse. She was just going to have to hang out and wait until she was off duty.

…

It was a couple of hours later until Mashiro was off duty. Shizuko was almost tempted to mess with the 11th division guys out of boredom when Mashiro came out saying, "Alright, let's go! There's a new teahouse that opened nearby!"

So now, Shizuko and Mashiro were waiting for their tea and talking about nothing in particular.

Shizuko still remembered when they first met.

"_Ooooohhhhh! Shinji, who's this?" Mashiro asked in a child-like manner._

_Shizuko had joined the fifth division about a couple of months ago. She had graduated from the Academy with a seated position available to her. The fifth division was the division that managed to land her. Her brother Kisuke had told her that her marks had made her noticed by a couple of the Taichos, and they were debating about where she would go. After it was decided that she would go to the fifth division, she was offered early graduation, which she accepted. After all, school was BORING!_

_She had managed to keep a low profile for a while doing her paperwork and killing hollows, but eventually, she felt the need to mess with someone._

_She was now being watched by her Taicho because she painted a target on a bald shinigami and started throwing darts at him (the suction cup kind, she wasn't out to kill him). She still thought that his reaction when she got a bulls-eye was funny._

_Now, they had run into another Taicho with his Fukutaicho, with the green-haired woman staring straight at her._

_Shinji pushed Shizuko in front of him so Mashiro could meet her._

"_This is my new fourth seat, Shizuko Urahara."_

"_Oooooohhhhhh! She's sooooo pretty! Tell me, what to you use with your hair?"_

_Okay, Shizuko thought that was a pretty random question._

"_Uhh…shampoo? I don't really do anything special."_

"_Really?"_

_Mashiro suddenly smiled._

_For some reason, this made Shizuko uncomfortable._

"_Well, how about we go and have make-overs!"_

"_Ehhhh?" Shizuko never had a make-over before, but she wasn't too fond of the idea. She didn't like to wear make-up._

_However, before she could protest, Mashiro grabbed her by the arm saying, "Come on!"_

"_Mashiro, you have work to do!"_

"_I'll do it later!"_

"_Wait! F-fukutaicho!"_

"_You can call me Mashiro."_

"_MASHIRO!"_

_She looked over at her Taicho seeing him waving her off. Oh, she was going to have to get him for that later._

And to think that they became friends after she was forced to undergo a make-over. She would admit that she like the way they had styled her hair and had kept it like that for a while, but apparently the make-over made her look hot or something because Shinji would not leave her alone after that.

Honestly, didn't he have anything better to do than harass someone that will get you back, despite the rank? And she wondered how he managed to get any work done.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as she saw something. Great, just great, he was here.

There went her good mood. Mashiro noticed this change in mood from her. She was starting to read her better, but it was still hard to get answers out of her in general.

"Shizuko, what's wrong?"

Shizuko looked over at her friend, a slightly annoyed look in her eyes.

"Guess who's following me, _again_?"

Mashiro understood immediately. After Shizuko brought him up, Mashiro suddenly saw him standing near a corner. She could barely sense his reiastu, which meant that he didn't want to be found. What she didn't get was how Shizuko noticed him so easily without looking over her shoulder. After all, Aizen was standing somewhere behind her.

"Don't look at him."

Mashiro took her friend's advice. She didn't like that her friend was being harassed by a stalker. Superior or not, Shizuko had friends that could stop him from stalking her all the time. And he was always looking at her like he was trying to observe something. Like she was some kind of experiment.

At first, she didn't have much of an opinion of the guy, but now that she was seeing him from Shizuko's point of view, he seemed like a creeper.

When Mashiro asked why she didn't confront him, she said that he was his superior and that there wasn't much she was allowed to do to him. Knowing her, she meant kicking his ass.

When she asked her why she didn't tell Shinji about this, she said it was her problem to deal with. She wasn't going to bother others about it.

When she asked why she thought that he was no good, how she knew that he wasn't just a shy admirer or something like that, or why she didn't trust him too much, she just said that she had her reasons.

Getting a straight answer out of her was probably the most difficult thing to do. The only people that would know her better than her friends would be her brother and Yoruichi. But, when someone asked something about her, they either said, "Go ask her yourself" or "It's not my place to tell you".

Shizuko was the most mysterious person she knew. But, she was also a very nice person once you get to know her.

Shizuko was very annoyed. Just how long had he been following her? He had been following her for weeks now, and not being able to beat up the person you despise was just a pain in the ass. Yeah, she would pull a number of pranks and get into trouble, but the Soutaicho won't let her go off so easily if she beats up a Fukutaicho, despite any allegations she had against him.

She was just going to have to lose him on her way back to the barracks.

However, this time Aizen did something he didn't do before.

He walked up to them just as their tea arrived and greeted the two.

"Hello you two. Enjoying your break?"

Mashiro wasn't expecting this, but she wasn't going to panic over nothing.

"Yeah, we were just getting tea."

"I see."

He took a seat next to Shizuko.

"Urahara-san, are you okay?"

She gave him a questioning look, wondering what he was up to this time.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

Aizen had a…."concerned" look on his face.

"It's just that, you haven't seemed to be eating lately. You have lost some weight. Did something bad happen?"

The perceptive bastard. No, nothing bad had happened…yet. Something bad was going to happen to an unseated shinigami on his next trip to the world of the living, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Not even her. That was the worst part about it. But she wasn't about to tell that to a manipulative bastard like him.

"No, nothing bad happened. I've just been busy lately."

"So busy that you don't eat?"

"It happens. Besides, of course I'm fine. My brother just became a Taicho, after all."

"Oooooh really? You're related to the new Taicho?" Oh yeah, she forgot to tell Mashiro.

"Yep, that knucklehead is my brother."

Mashiro seemed amazed at this. Aizen just continued to stare at her as though he was trying to see what she was really thinking.

Well, he wasn't about to find out anytime soon, so he may as well give up.

Just as she thought that, Aizen got up.

"Well, if you're sure. By the way, you still have work to do today, so don't linger here too long."

Shizuko inwardly groaned as she remembered the abandoned paperwork.

"Ok, later." She waved her hand at him, not bothering to look as he left.

She didn't know what he was up too, but he was starting to read her a bit too much. She was going to have to come up with something to counter that.

No matter what, she mustn't let Aizen figure out the truth.


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry I made you guys wait so long. I got some inspiration to update my Death Note story and I ended up paying more attention to that. But, since I'm waiting to actually get reviews for that story, I should update this one.**

**As for the last chapter, I couldn't remember if Nii-san had one I or two I's. Well, it turned out to be two I's, so sorry about that little typo. Well, anyway, you guys waited long enough for this update.**

**So, here ya go.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. If I did, Aizen would have had his ass kicked a long time ago. I do, however, own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 14

A couple of days had passed and Shizuko was sitting in a chair in her Taicho's office. Today was the day. She knew it. Sometime today, an unseated officer from the 3rd division was going to be killed by a hollow and Rose was going to make preparations for the ceremony that was yet to come. She knew how it was going to happen, too. She knew, yet she couldn't do anything about it. That was the worst part about this.

She didn't ask for it. She was just born with it. The only people that knew about this were her brother and Yoruichi. She wouldn't necessarily tell them that something bad was going to happen, but they would know because of her change in mood. She would always go into a kind of depressed mood when she saw something that she couldn't do anything about. It was the only time that she would feel so…..powerless.

You would think that getting premonitions would better prepare you for events that have yet to come so that you would be able to prevent something like someone's untimely death. Well, it didn't work like that. There were some things that she couldn't prevent, not without letting everyone know her secret.

It wasn't that she was afraid of turning into an experiment. Her brother was getting ready to build up a Research and Development department, or whatever he called it, in his division. He would be in charge of the experiments. She knew that he wouldn't harm her. She was afraid of what Central 46 would say. Their word was law here. If they saw her as a dangerous being, they would order for her execution.

But, she couldn't afford to die yet. Aizen was up to something. She needed to find out what it was and stop him. She couldn't tell anyone in case he got word of it. She needed to have the upper hand here. Once Aizen was down and her friends were safe from whatever he was planning, then she wouldn't care what Central 46 said about her. She just wanted to make sure that everyone was safe from Aizen first.

Well, one good thing about this "gift" was that she did have some control over it. Yeah, the future came and went whenever it damn well pleases, but she did control on when she wanted to see the past and the present.

Like now, she was checking up on everyone without leaving the confines of her Taicho's office. Mashiro was annoying the hell out of Kensei. She wished that she could join in on that. That was always fun. Hiyori was punching Kisuke in the face. Poor Nii-san. Lisa was nagging at her Taicho, who was drinking sake again. Yoruichi was messing with Soi-Fon, her subordinate. Rose was getting the report that she knew he would receive today. Love was reading another manga. Wow, she knew almost half of the Taichos. Hmmmmmm…she didn't recall meeting the Taicho of 11th division. She heard that he got in by killing the former Taicho.

She probed through the Sereitei with her mind's eye until she found the 11th division. After a few seconds of looking, she found him. Damn! He looked scary! He had an eye-patch, spiky hair, and multiple scars. And on his shoulder was….a little girl with pink hair. Awwwww, she looked so cute! Wait, was she wearing a Fukutaicho's badge. Damn! How did that happen? She was going to have to meet them later. Maybe while she was messing with baldy. What was his name? Ikkaku, Ikkaka….oh well, it didn't really matter to her. His reactions were always the best.

Shinji looked up from his work at his fourth seat, who seemed to be in a trance-like state with her eyes closed. Maybe she was sleeping sitting up? He had her in here because he knew that, if left on her own, she would get in trouble again. He already heard enough from the old man that week as it was. However, she was probably being bored to death, which meant that _he_ would be her next target. She didn't really care about a person's rank, even if they were a Taicho. If she thought it would be fun to prank you, _she will._

He should save himself while he could.

"Hey, Shizuko."

Shizuko snapped out of her vision and stared at her Taicho.

"Yeah Taicho."

"Would you send these reports over to Rose for me? And _don't_ get into trouble this time."

Shizuko jumped up, glad of the opportunity to be able to move around.

"Sure."

She grabbed the papers and left. Shinji sat there for a while in the silence. Hmmmm….he should probably follow her to make sure that she didn't do anything to anybody.

With that thought, he was off. It was better than doing paperwork, anyway.

Shizuko was walking in the direction of the 3rd division. She was wondering how Rose was taking the news. In any case, she would have to act as if that was the first time she was hearing the news.

While she was thinking out her reaction, she nearly ran into someone. She looked down to see a little boy with silver hair. He looked lost.

She crouched down to his level.

"Can I help you?" she said in a cheerful tone.

The boy looked up at her and nodded.

"I'm looking for the 5th division. Do you know where that is?"

She nodded.

"Well, I better know, because I'm from the 5th division. It's over that way."

The boy nodded.

"Thanks." With that, he was off.

She was wondering if he was a new recruit. He seemed a bit young. Maybe he was an unseated officer. She shrugged and continued her way.

She was almost there when she was glomped by a flying pink blur. Surprisingly, she remained standing. She looked down to see the same pink-haired girl that she saw earlier.

"Hey, can you help me?"

Shizuko nodded.

The girl smiled.

"Hide me from Baldy! We're playing hide-and-seek!"

Huh?

"We're not playing!"

Shizuko looked over to see the same bald shinigami from 11th division that she would sometimes mess with. Like with the target and darts.

"Oh great, it's you again!"

The girl seemed to perk up at this.

"Oh, you know her, Baldy?"

"Stop calling me bald! And yeah, I know who she is! I'm going to get back at you today!"

The girl, however, paid no attention to his rant. She decided to greet Shizuko.

"I'm Yachiru! What's your name?"

"I'm Shizuko."

"That's a great name, Shishi!"

Shishi. Shizuko couldn't help but chuckle a bit at this.

"What's so funny?" Yachiru was curious.

"Oh nothing. Anyway, I have to get this report to the 3rd division."

Normally, she would have accepted Baldy's challenge and kick his ass right there, but she knew that Shinji was following her, so she better behave for once.

"Ok! See you later, Shishi!"

With that, Yachiru was gone in a flash. Wow, she was fast.

Baldy, however, wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Oh no you don't!"

"Hey, what are you doing? There's no fighting allowed here!"

The both of them looked over to see Kensei and Mashiro. Kensei looked annoyed as usual.

Baldy backed down at this. He did it a bit grudgingly, though.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." With that, he left.

"Shizuko, what did you do?"

What! The one time it wasn't her fault….

"I didn't do anything. I was just delivering a report when he came up and wanted to challenge me." Just ask her Taicho, who saw the whole thing from the shadows.

Kensei didn't look like he believed her, but he didn't look like he was in the mood to argue. She wondered if Mashiro had anything to do with that.

"Whatever, just don't do it again."

The one time she was telling the truth…

She decided to let it drop, mainly because her Taicho was watching.

"Ok, I just really need to get going here. Later Mashiro. Later Kensei."

She knew that calling him by his first name would have annoyed him, but hey, that was just how she was.

After a few minutes, she finally made it to Rose's office.

She knocked on the door and walked in when he told her to.

"Hey, Shizuko. What brings you here without Shinji? I was under the impression you were under house arrest at your division."

"Ha ha, I came by here to drop off a report for you."

She handed him the paper.

"Thank you for that."

He seemed to be a bit tired. She pretended that she was just able to read him.

"Did something happen?"

"Yeah, you're pretty good at reading people." If only he knew.

"Well, one of my unseated officers was just killed by a hollow today. I need to help prepare a funeral for his family."

"Oh, sorry." She wasn't pretending to be downcast. She already was because, once again, she felt her own powerlessness. And she hated every bit of it.

"Don't worry about it. Don't be so sad. I heard that you haven't been eating much lately. Is everything ok with you?"

Ok, Mashiro was a good friend and all, but she really didn't need her to go and tell everyone about what Aizen said.

She smiled.

"Everything is fine. I've just been busy lately with some things. Besides, I've actually been in a good mood. Did you know that Kisuke Urahara's my brother?"

Rose nodded.

"Yeah, Mashiro told me. If you want to surprise people yourself, you should probably hold off on telling Mashiro."

"I know, but what can I do. She gets really excitable at these things."

"True, well I better not keep you here any longer. Shinji is probably starting to panic about your whereabouts as it is. He actually worries about you, you know."

"What, I'm not even causing trouble right now. Honestly, sometimes people worry too much."

"Yeah, well, you better get going. I'll see you later."

"Later."

She left his office and started making her way back to the 5th division. She knew that Shinji was still watching her, but she wasn't going to say anything about it for now. But he really did worry about her too much. She was fine.

Shinji hurried back to his office before Shizuko could beat him there. He sat down in his seat just as she walked on in. She never knocked first before entering his office. It was only with him that she didn't knock.

"I delivered the report like you said."

"And without getting into trouble? I'm surprised. You _can_ get work done around here!"

She smirked mischievously.

"Well, that's more than what I can say about you. That pile of paperwork is the same height as it was when I left. Honestly, how do you get any work done, Taicho?"

Shinji blushed a bit in embarrassment. He didn't think about that. He didn't think she would have noticed it. Did she know that he followed her?

"You better get to work before you get stuck here all night working."

He glared playfully at her.

"Nag, nag, nag. Honestly, you're like a mom or a wife or something."

"Well, someone needs to nag at you if you don't want Yamamoto to be doing that."

She had a point. Damn, he hated it when she was right.

He turned back to his paperwork while Shizuko lay down on the couch.

…

It was late evening when Shinji finally finished. Well, at least the portion he was planning on finishing. He was going to have Aizen finish the rest.

He looked up to find Shizuko asleep on the couch. He sighed. She must get bored just sitting around the office all day. But, if he let her go off by herself, she would get into some kind of trouble that was caused by her.

Shinji had an idea. He had never seen her release her Zanpakuto before. He knew that she reached shikai because Kisuke had told him that once. That was the most that he would say about it, though. He said that you would have to see her Zanpakuto's abilities for yourself in order to understand it better.

That settled it. Tomorrow, they were going to spar.

He looked at the time on his clock and figured that he should return her to her room.

He walked over to the couch, picked her up, and left the office.

Ok, it was later than he thought. The sun was set and the moon was illuminating the night.

He carried her bridal style in the direction of her room until he found Kisuke walking towards him. He spotted them.

"Ah, I was wondering where she was at. I didn't see her all day and she wasn't in her room, so I started to worry."

Shinji smiled.

"Well, there's no need to worry. She was in my office when she fell asleep on the couch. I was just taking her to her room right now."

"Ah, that's very kind of you, Hirako-san."

"I told you to call me Shinji."

"Sorry, Shinji. I can take her from here if you want."

For some reason, Shinji didn't really want to let her go, but he supposed that he should hand her off to her brother.

Just as he was about to hand her over, she suddenly grasp the front of his uniform in a tight grip. He was surprised by this, but Kisuke was chuckling softly so that he wouldn't wake her.

"Sorry about that. She does that sometimes in her sleep for some reason. It can actually be a bit tricky trying to get her to relax her grip."

Shinji looked down at her to see that she was still sleeping peacefully. He smiled softly at this. Kisuke noticed this but didn't say anything.

Shinji tried to hand her over, but, as Kisuke said, she had a death grip on him. Shizuko was now in Kisuke's arms, but he still had to remove her hand.

He decided to gently grab her wrist, and then gently move down her hand and try to pry her fingers off. It worked and he'd put her hand down gently.

Kisuke smiled.

"Goodnight, Hira – Shinji."

"Goodnight Kisuke."

With that, they went their separate ways.


	15. Chapter 15

'**Ello everybody! I have decided to put more focus into this story for a while. Not too many people every really review any of my stories, so I worry about how the chapters went. **

**Seriously, out of all of my stories, I only have 29 reviews, and I'm a lot further along on my Death Note story, too. I will recognize that 10 of those reviews have been from Fanime-Sensei. For being the one who has sent the most reviews to me, I give you virtual cookies! ^^**

**So, even though I feel very repetitive for saying this, PLEASE REVIEW! I have enabled the anonymous review thing, so those of you that don't have an account can review too.**

**Also, if you would like to Beta this story, send me a message. I have been told that I sometimes have trouble with tenses. I will go by a first come, first serve basis. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach for the umpteenth time. I do own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 15

Shizuko woke up a bit confused at first. She didn't remember walking back to her room last night. She remembered lying on the couch and….she fell asleep on her Taicho's couch. Whoops.

She didn't mean to, but she got bored and sleepy waiting around for something to happen that would get her out and about. She hated being confined like that. She understood that she sometimes caused trouble for Shinji, but she didn't cause trouble _all_ of the time.

She looked over to the side to see a plate with onigiri on it. She was puzzled by the sudden appearance of food until she saw a note next to the plate. She picked it up to see what it said.

_You're it!_

She smiled. It sounded like Yoruichi was getting bored, too. It had been a while since their last game of tag. She probably snuck in here just minutes before. She'd admit it. Yoruichi was fast. But Shizuko was also fast. She ate the onigiri in a couple of bites and then prepared herself for a long day of shunpoing throughout the Sereitei in a friendly game of tag.

Shizuko then scanned the present for her target. Yoruichi wouldn't say that it was cheating because it was never a rule that she couldn't use it. Besides, she needed to work on seeing the target in her vision and seeing what was right in front of her at the same time. It would give her a headache because she was splitting her vision between her eyes and her mind's eye, but she was getting better at it.

Ah! Found her! She was over at the 4th division talking to Unohana. She knew that Unohana wouldn't be too surprised if Shizuko interrupted their chat to tag Yoruichi. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time.

Dressed in uniform and ready to go, she walked out and shut the door behind her. In the next instant, she was on the edge of the 5th division barracks and closing in on her target.

A minute later, Shizuko hid in a bush and watched her target, waiting for the right time to strike.

"It seems that we have company."

Yoruichi glanced over her shoulder, sensing the almost undetectable reiastu of her pursuer.

"Yeah, I invited Shizuko to a game of tag," she said with a grin.

Unohana nodded, used to this behavior.

"I'll admit she's getting better at hiding her reiastu. How long does she intend to stay as a fourth seat? I know she's capable of more than that."

Yoruichi shrugged.

"Eh, that's her business. It could be that she doesn't want to advance. I don't really mind too much, since I can still find her with enough time to play tag with me. Besides, she's really not the type of person who wants more paperwork in their future."

Unohana nodded.

"Yes, she's too mischievous for that. But eventually, she may have no choice but to go forward in rank. Exactly, how much more powerful is she? I would like to say she's at least at a Fukutaicho's level, but I can't tell because she hasn't been properly tested."

Yoruichi shrugged.

"She's not exactly the type to brag about her power. But, you are right. She isn't really a fourth seat level."

"You may want to consider having her powers tested soon. It's only a matter of time before Yamamoto or Central 46 notice. Yamamoto may let her keep her rank, but Central 46 may force the matter. You should probably talk to Shinji about that."

Yoruichi knew that she was right. But, Shizuko didn't want a higher rank. She had once commented about why aim for a higher rank if all you get is more paperwork. Plus, Shizuko didn't want her powers to be known by everyone for some reason. She and Kisuke knew that something was wrong, but they couldn't tell what and she wouldn't tell them.

She had figured that her latest bout of depression was because of a shinigami that was killed yesterday. She figured that she would focus on getting Shizuko's mind off of that. Shizuko didn't like the powerlessness that came with her ability, so Yoruichi would seek her out each time and find a way to get the visions off of her mind.

This time it was to play tag.

"You're probably…." She wasn't able to finish her sentence because at that moment, Shizuko came out of hiding to try to pounce on her.

Yoruichi shunpoed away. Shizuko turned around and tried again.

This was how the whole day went, with some funny reactions from people standing by. The 11th division guys jumped out of the way of the two women. Shizuko thought that they were wusses. Yachiru cheered them on. Kensei looked annoyed and Mashiro watched on when they passed by the 9th division. Rose looked up from his guitar when they sped by. Love dropped his manga when he went outside to read. Hiyori jumped and Kisuke just watched with an amused expression on his face. An expression that Hiyori pounded on after they left. Poor Nii-san. There was some weird looking guy in 12th division that Shizuko had never seen before, and he just watched them with an annoyed yet curious expression. Shizuko had nearly run into a large pink man. She remembered him once. She was pretty sure his name was Hachi. Shunsui spilled his sake on himself. Ukitake…was sick so she didn't see him outside. She did see Kaien, who had jumped out of the way at first, then cheered them on.

Honestly, how did she know so many people? Oh, that was right, Shinji took her everywhere with him. She was lucky not to have spotted Aizen that whole time. She wasn't in the mood to deal with him.

During the whole game, Shizuko had managed to tag Yoruichi. Of course, she stayed it longer than Yoruichi, but the fact that she was able to catch her was an accomplishment.

However, their fun had ended towards the end of the day when Shinji finally found her about to catch Yoruichi.

"There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Shizuko flinched. She knew that she was in trouble for not reporting to him before catching up to Yoruichi. She honestly didn't think that the game would have lasted this long.

Shinji was a bit mad at her. But, seeing that Yoruichi was with her, it meant that she had been playing the whole day. Any trouble that would have happened from their play would have been blamed on both of them and not just Shizuko, which meant that the old man wouldn't have gone off on him for this.

Shinji sighed. Honestly, he had been worried about what happened to her that would make her suddenly disappear from her room. But, Yoruichi was an old friend of hers, so it looked like there was no need to worry.

He saw Shizuko look down as he approached her, obviously knowing that she was in trouble.

He looked down at her as she approached him slowly, waiting to be yelled at.

Instead of yelling at her, he patted her on the head, making her look up. He smiled.

"Just be sure to let me know the next time you're going to go play with Yoruichi."

Shizuko sighed in relief. He wasn't going to yell at her. He seemed to understand.

"Now…there's a pile of paperwork that you need to go through, so you're coming with me."

"Wait-what?"

Before Shizuko could whine and argue the matter, Shinji picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. He then proceeded to carry his fourth seat back kicking and screaming. Shizuko looked up as she struggled against his grip to see Yoruichi waving her off with a smirk on her face. It looked like she was trying to resist the urge to laugh her ass off at the site.

Oh she was going to have to pay her a visit later.

Eventually, she gave up and just hung there from Shinji's shoulder. At least until they made it to his office where he dropped her on the couch.

She huffed as he went to his desk and grabbed a stack of paperwork. He walked over back to her and placed them in her hands.

"Now, get to work."

She mentally groaned at all the work she had to do. Or, at least, she was supposed to do.

Instead, she decided to make paper airplanes, something she had learned on her last trip to the world of the living.

However, since Shinji was busy taking a nap, like the lazy-ass that he was, he didn't notice this until one of the paper airplanes had hit him right between the eyes.

Shizuko laughed her ass off at the sight of Shinji's bewildered expression of being attacked by paperwork.

The laughter was short-lived as Shinji came up with a plan to get back at her.

In an instant, Shizuko was tackled off of the couch and was pinned to the floor. She looked up to see Shinji smiling evilly at her.

Oh no. He wasn't thinking what she thought he was thinking was he?

Yes, yes he was. He had straddled her and made sure to keep her there between his knees as he moved his hands off of her arms and to her sides.

That was when he began his torture by tickling. Yes, tickling.

She couldn't hold it in. She began laughing as Shinji continued to tickle her. She squirmed underneath him, trying to escape. It was no use. He had her pinned.

She was starting to have a hard time breathing.

"T-t-t-t-taicho! P-p-p-p-please…..stop….it!"

Shinji kept at it. He wasn't done with her yet.

But Shizuko was done with this. She needed to breathe!

"Shinji! Stop it!"

She managed to hit him in the chest and he stopped.

He partly stopped because she had hit him in the chest, but what had mainly stopped him was the fact that she actually said his name. She had never addressed him by his name before. She addressed everyone else, including the other Taichos, by their name for the most part, but she never did that with him.

It caught him by surprised. She had always addressed her friends without any honorifics, but she seemed to always stick with the honorifics when speaking with him. It struck him as odd. Maybe she was just being respectful, but, then again, this was Shizuko he was talking about. She wouldn't show you any respect if she didn't think you deserved it. Even then, she was always playing around.

Shizuko eventually calmed down. She looked up to see a weird expression on his face. She wondered what that expression was for.

"Shinji?" Then it hit her. She had addressed him by his name. She had always felt that she should at least be respectful enough to call him her Taicho and never used his name. But she slipped up now. Maybe that was what the expression was about.

Either way, she wanted him to stop looking at her so weird.

"Taicho!" She punched him in the chest again and he doubled over.

He closed his eyes as he doubled over and when he opened his eyes, he found Shizuko's eyes only inches from his own. Now that he was looking closely at them, she had a very beautiful shade of deep blue eyes. They were almost mesmerizing.

They were like that for a minute, both unsure of what to do, when a knock sounded on the door.

"Taicho! There is a Taichos' meeting in a few minutes. We need to get going!"

Of course, Aizen was at the door.

Upon hearing him, they both got up. Shizuko moved back to the couch and Shinji stood in the middle of the office.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be out in a minute."

In that instant, everything was almost normal.

Shinji glanced over at Shizuko.

"You stay here and finish your paperwork. You better be here when I get back."

Shizuko just smiled back.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. See ya later."

With that, Shinji left the office, leaving Shizuko behind to ponder what to do besides paperwork.


	16. Chapter 16

**Bleach fans everywhere! I'm back with the update you've been waiting for! What will happen now? Will there be a cliffhanger? Will there be action? Will there be suspense? You will find out as you read through the chapter.**

**The word of the day: REVIEW!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I do own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 16

A few years had passed without too much incident, all things considered with Shizuko's pranks, Aizen's plotting (that she would get him for eventually), Aizen's stalking, and, of course, the occasional vision.

The most annoying thing about the visions of the future was that they would only clear up a couple of days, sometimes even less, before the event. That ranged between a week and a half to a five second notice, which she _really_ hated.

Anytime time before that, they would be blurred. Nothing but an assortment of colors that she couldn't make heads or tails of. Those would start about a month or so before the event, and they always made her wait in anticipation and made her pray it wasn't something horrible.

She hated the waiting. It was the only thing she could do while the blurred visions plagued her.

Something like that was happening to her now.

She had no idea what it was supposed to be either. As a result, she was in a bit of an irritable mood today.

The only people who had a clue about the reason for her irritated behavior were Kisuke and Yoruichi, and that was because they knew her.

Which was why Kisuke was trying to take her mind off of her visions by showing her some new developments his department made.

It was amazing how much progress he made with this in such a short time. It probably wouldn't be considered short to the humans, but they couldn't live as long, so something like five or ten years could pass by easily for some people here. Shizuko couldn't remember if it was five or ten years ago that Kisuke was promoted. Despite her visions, she tried to live in the now and didn't bother too much with calendars.

Oh well, she didn't think much of it. She was too busy ogling at some of the new creations.

Despite his lazy attitude he had sometimes (which only lasted until she and Hiyori teamed up on him), he really was a genius.

She didn't think that she would come up with something like a gigai. Something like this could be extremely useful.

"Hey Nii-san!"

Kisuke looked over at Shizuko to see her ogling at stuff she probably didn't even had a clue as to what they were.

"How do you come up with this stuff?"

Just as he was about to answer, there was a crashing sound. They both looked over to see Hiyori shouting at Akon, one of the young recruits to the squad.

Shizuko sighed, and then walked over to her.

She patted her head, making her look up. Hiyori was about to shout at her until she saw it was Shizuko.

"What's up?"

Of course, she wasn't going to scold at her for losing her temper. That was just her.

Before Hiyori could say anything, Shizuko spoke up again.

"How about we go do something? You could probably use a break."

And before Hiyori could protest, Shizuko spoke up again.

"And you might get to beat on my Taicho if we run into him."

Ok, now Hiyori was game. She liked beating his face in. And she also knew that they would run into him because he was always on the look out for Shizuko to make sure she wasn't causing trouble.

"Ok." Hiyori didn't act like it, but she was glad that someone was making time for her out of the day, even insist on it.

Shizuko smiled. She was thinking of Hiyori as the little sister she never had.

"Ok if I tag along? I can use a break myself."

Shizuko knew that Hiyori was a bit annoyed about Kisuke wanting to tag along, but Shizuko didn't mind about him tagging along.

"Ok with me. Ok with you?" She asked Hiyori.

She looked down in defeat as she said, "Sure."

Shizuko knew that she was starting to warm up to Kisuke. She just wouldn't admit it.

A few minutes later, the three of them were walking around the Sereitei looking for something to do.

It wasn't long until a certain blonde Taicho found them.

"Hey, there you are!"

Yep, right on cue. She knew he was looking for her. Thankfully, Aizen wasn't with him. However, the new third seat, Gin, was. She still remembered the first time she was told his rank.

_Shizuko came in Shinji's office to see the same silver-haired boy she gave directions to once. She smiled, walked up to him, crouched down to his level, and started patting his head._

"_Why hello there! I'm glad to see that you found your way here! Are you a new recruit?"_

_The boy smiled back at her._

"_Yes I am. I'm Gin Ichimaru."_

"_Well, that's a nice name."_

"_Thanks."_

"_Urahara-san, you probably shouldn't treat him as a child so much."_

_Shizuko looked at Aizen with an annoyed look._

"_But he is a kid. A kid is supposed to have fun. It's not very fun being treated like an adult sometimes. By the way, why did you decide to become a shinigami so young?" She asked Gin._

_His smile didn't falter once._

"_Cuz' I wanted to. What seat are you?"_

"_I'm the fourth seat here."_

"_I'm the new third seat."_

"_Whaaaaaaat?" She said with exaggeration. She wasn't too surprised, seeing that someone named Byakuya was also a skilled kid, but it wasn't everyday that someone several years younger than you gets ranked above you._

"_Yep."_

"_That was what I was trying to say. He is now your superior."_

_Well, she preferred this kid as her superior over him at the moment._

"_Lay off Sousuke. She doesn't mean any offence by it, and it's not like that going to stop her from seeing him as a kid anyway."_

_Shinji came in, seeing that Shizuko met the new third seat._

"_I don't really mind either way." _

_Gin was cool with it. So far, she definitely liked this kid more than Aizen._

"_Anyway, welcome to the squad!"_

"Hi Taicho!"

Shinji walked up, relieved that she was just hanging out with Kisuke today. She had, once again, disappeared from the barracks. She really needed to stop doing that.

"So, you were over in 12th division after all."

"I told you that she would be over there." Yes, Gin knew that her brother was the Taicho of 12th division as well. It really wasn't a secret. It never was. People just never asked if they were related before.

"Yes, she has been with us the entire time." Kisuke knew that she didn't tell Shinji where she went, but he figured the lack of chaos would have been a good sign for him.

"Honestly Taicho, you-."

"Shishi!"

Shizuko blinked as someone jumped onto her shoulders. She didn't need to look up to know that that was Yachiru resting her head on hers.

"What is it, Yachiru?"

Yachiru started playing with Shizuko's hair as she spoke.

"We need someone to train the new recruits. They're too weak for Kenny. Pretty boy's doing something else. And Baldy's in the 4th division."

"Are you sure you want me to train them?"

Yachiru nodded.

"Yep. Kenny just said to find someone and you were the first one that came to mind."

Shizuko looked over to Shinji.

"Can I, Taicho?"

Shinji sighed.

"Sure, just don't beat them up too badly."

Shizuko smiled at the prospect of beating up the 11th division guys and not getting in trouble for it.

"Okay. I'll see you guys later."

With that, she shunpoed off with Yachiru on her shoulders.

"Why did she call Shizuko 'beast'?"

"That's just her nickname for her. The fact that shishi means 'beast' is a coincidence."

At least, that was what Shinji thought anyway.

"It may be a coincidence, but Shizuko is very strong."

Hiyori looked up at Urahara.

"What do you mean?"

"Shizuko is actually stronger than she lets herself look. In fact, you may get an example if we can sneak a peek at this training session."

Curiosity got the best of them all at Urahara's suggestion. They decided to see her work.

On the way there, Hiyori suddenly had a question.

"Hey Shinji, just how good do you think she is? Is she really so strong?"

Shinji looked over at Hiyori.

"I have my suspicions, but I've never confronted her about it. I do know that she is exceptional at sensing others. There had been more than one mission in which she knew exactly where the hollows were and how they were going to attack whenever she was on a team. It was because of her senses and intuition that some of my division members are still alive today."

Actually, Urahara knew that wasn't the case, but if Shizuko wanted them to know, then she would tell them herself. That was the agreement they came to when she first started having visions. He still remembered when she started having them.

"_Nii-san!"_

_Shizuko came running around the corner at Yoruichi's manor in a panic. She still had the appearance of a little girl._

"_What is it?" He had never seen her so scared._

"_Someone's going to die! There's going to be a hollow attack in Rukongai! Some of the shinigami there will be killed by an ambush! We have to do something!"_

_His eyes widened at this._

"_What makes you think that something like that is going to happen?"_

"_Because I saw it just now! We have to hurry!"_

_She was pulling on his arm, trying to make him budge._

"_Now, now Shizuko, I'm sure you just had a bad dream…."_

"_It wasn't a dream! I was wide awake when I saw it! It's going to happen today!"_

_She was practically crying at this point._

_Upon seeing this, he immediately picked her up and tried to comfort the distressed child._

_He had no idea what had gotten into her, but nothing had made her this upset before._

_Nevertheless, a couple of hours later there was word of a hollow attack in Rukongai. Some of the shinigami patrolling there had been killed in the attack from an ambush._

_He told Yoruichi and she agreed to ask Shizuko about this._

"_Hey, little Shizuko." The glum child looked up at her friend who was kind enough to let them stay at her manor._

"_How did you know about the hollow attack?"_

"_I saw it."_

"_How did you see it? Can you explain what happened that made you see it?"_

_Shizuko looked down in thought._

"_I don't really know. I was just walking down a hallway when suddenly an image flashed through my head. I didn't know what it was at first, but then it flashed through again. This time I saw….blood and…..bodies. I….I….didn't know what to do."_

_She started crying._

_Yoruichi hugged the frightened girl and looked to her friend. He was thinking the same thing she was thinking. His little sister could see the future._

_They weren't sure what Central 46's policy on this would be, but he didn't want his little sister locked up and treated as a threat if the possibility was there._

_For now, they would just have to keep this quiet until further notice._

It still pained him to think that such a thing could affect her so much.

He signed her up for the Shinigami Academy in the hopes that she could control it to some degree if she could control her reiastu. So far, there hadn't been much luck there. But she did learn that she could see events in the past and present and was able to control them from her training.

"Hey! Kisuke!"

He snapped out of his reverie at Shinji's voice.

"Are you ok? You spaced out on us."

"Oh, sorry. I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing, really."

They were now at the 11th division and were now sneaking to the training area.

"Okay everyone, I will be training you today. So if you have any problems with that, just go straight to the complaint department and they will take your complaints."

"Complaint department? What's that?"

Shizuko pulled out her Zanpakuto.

"My Zanpakuto is in charge of the complaint department, so does anyone have any complaints?"

Nobody answered.

"Good. Now, who wants to go first?"

At first it was silence, and then one of the guys stepped up.

"What is this? We're going to be trained by a little girl? Please, we won't be able to get anywhere because we got stuck with a weak-ass little girl."

_**There's always the one guy with his head up his ass.**_

_I'll say, Shishi._

_**I still find it funny that that girl's nickname for you is your nickname for me.**_

_What can I say? We're beast! Now let's show them that the nickname is actually justified, even if that wasn't Yachiru's intent._

"This won't even last five minutes."

"Well then, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you."

At first, they looked confused.

"This won't even last _two_ minutes."

At this, she gave off a dangerous aura.

Unfortunately for the challenger, he didn't take the hint.

"Why you-I'll show you your place!"

He ran forward with the wooden sword. Shizuko had one too, but she didn't pull it out.

If the guy was smart at all, which he wasn't, he would have guessed that something was up, which he didn't.

He ran right up to her and swung the sword down, only for it to hit the ground.

"Huh?"

Shinji, Kisuke, and everyone were in the bushes when it happened. Shizuko had shunpoed away at the last possible second and was now behind the noob.

However, it didn't even look like she actually moved. Her sword was still in her sash.

Before the newbie could react, Shizuko whipped out her sword in one fluid motion and slammed it against his side. He slammed against a thick tree and went down with the tree.

Very calmly, she lowered the wooden sword and looked towards the group smiling.

"So, who's next?"

Nobody said anything. There were shocked faces all around. Even on Hiyori's face. She had never seen her do that much damage to someone.

Urahara knew that would happen and Shinji wasn't overly surprised. However, they both had noticed that her reaistu was starting to rise.

Urahara was wondering if it was because she hadn't let lose in a long time. She could only contain her reaistu for so long.

All of the new recruits were scared shitless. They wouldn't move towards her, since they now knew that they were outclassed.

"What's the matter? Don't tell me you're all scared of a little girl now, are you?"

"Depends on what you mean by a little girl?"

Shizuko turned around to see Kenpachi, or, as Yachiru liked to call him, Kenny.

He was definitely a big guy. She had never seen him in person before. Damn!

He looked….scary. That was all she could say right now because she couldn't exactly identify the look on his face.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Shizuko Urahara. Fourth seat of 5th division."

"Fourth seat? Not with that reaistu. You've been holding back, haven't you?"

"And if I had?"

Shizuko wasn't going to be scared of him. She had decided on that a few seconds ago after the initial shock of seeing him in person. However, she probably should have watched what she said.

"Well, I don't know how much stronger you are, but how about we have a battle? It seemed like that you're more at the Fukutaicho level, but that may be low balling it. What do you say?"

Shinji did not like this. Not at all. He prayed that Shizuko would back down. He heard about the new Kenpachi. He didn't want her ripped to shreds.

"Sure why not?"


	17. Chapter 17

**Heh, heh, heh. How many of you hated that cliffhanger? Oh well, at least you'll know what happens next now. Just remember:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I do own Shizuko, my OC.**

**WARNING: There is a spoiler about Gin in this chapter. It was something that was brought up in some of the latest Bleach chapters. If you aren't up to date and decided to read this anyway, remember: you have been warned.**

Chapter 17

Shinji could not believe his ears. Shizuko was supposed to be smart enough to deny that challenge. By the time it fully registered that she had accepted the challenge, one thought ran through his mind.

_She's going to get hurt._

As Shinji moved to stop this, Urahara placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"Hold it. Let's just watch and see what happens."

Shinji couldn't believe this either. She was his sister for crying out loud! Shouldn't he be concerned?

"Don't worry. You'll see in a minute." It seemed as though Urahara read his mind.

Shinji didn't want to, but he stayed where he was at, praying that Urahara was onto something.

Kenpachi smirked.

"Well, I'm glad you accepted. Now grabbed your Zanpakuto and fight me!"

Kenpachi had let out a wave of reiastu, but Shizuko didn't seem to have wavered.

Instead, she grabbed her Zanpakuto and readied herself.

"As you wish."

Kenpachi charged her. As he swung his Zanpakuto down, she shunpoed out of the way and behind him, where she attempted to strike him. He raised his Zanpakuto and blocked, as well as threw her out of the way. He stared at her as she got up to her feet.

"Now, there's no reason to hold back. You won't get into trouble if you scratch me, so stop holding back."

She smirked. So he wanted her to stop holding back.

"Fine, just remember that you asked for it."

With that, she disappeared and a half-second later, she slashed his arm, causing blood to spurt out.

Everyone who was spying, with the exception of Urahara, widened their eyes at the sight. It was rumored that no one could scratch the new Kenpachi with their Zanpakuto, that he was crazy strong. But, she managed to make him bleed with one sweep of her Zanpakuto. Too bad that only made the guy laugh and want more.

"Now that's more like it! You need to fight like that more!"

He went at her again. Shinji watched as he saw his fourth seat take on the battle-crazed Taicho. He had never seen her fight like this. He figured that she had never fought to her potential, but he could never have guessed that she would be able to hold her own against a Taicho. But she was also sustaining some damage. He managed to clip her arm and graze her back. She had so many near misses, but she was starting to slip up.

Urahara watched on. He was afraid that she had been holding everything in for too long and needed to cut loose. In fact, she typically went out by herself whenever she needed to do that.

But, if she wanted to take him down, she would need to release her Zanpakuto, which he knew she wouldn't do, which was why she was starting to sustain damage from this fight.

She didn't want her Zanpakuto's powers known, and no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to figure out why. Did it have something to do with the future?

Shinji cringed as she took another hit. He needed to stop this.

"Why don't you release you sword? Or are you not able to?"

She smirked at him.

"But your sword isn't released either. I figured I should fight on your terms."

"Well, I'll admit that's pretty bold of you to think that you can take me on without releasing your Zanpakuto, but it is also foolish. But, if you don't want to, I'll just slice you to pieces anyway."

Just as he was about to charge her again, someone yelled out.

"Hey, Shizuko! What are you doing?"

Both the combatants stopped and turned around to see Shinji, who looked worried and somewhat angry.

Oh shit! She was too busy cutting loose to keep track of her Taicho's whereabouts. She had no idea that he was coming here.

"Taicho."

She flinched as she turned to face him fully due to the injuries she sustained.

Great, she had no idea how to explain this one.

He looked straight at her.

"What were you doing? You were supposed to just train the recruits, not take on Kenpachi."

"Relax. I was the one who challenged her. Now, if you don't mind, we're in the middle of a fight here."

Shinji turned to glare at him.

"Actually, I do mind. I need my fourth seat here intact. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be taking her with me."

Kenpachi frowned, obviously not liking the fact that their fight had been halted.

Shizuko just sheathed her Zanpakuto and said, "Fine."

She then turned to face Kenpachi.

"This fight ain't over yet. We'll continue at another time."

"Well, aren't you the bold one? But you're right. This fight isn't over yet. Next time, you better be prepared to fight me at full power because I won't be holding back at all."

She smirked.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

She then turned and walked away with Shinji.

She knew that he was mad at her. She probably worried him. But she didn't want him to worry about her. She would be fine. Yes, she had some injuries from the fight, but she would live. He worried about her too much. In fact, she wondered if the other Taichos worried about their subordinates as much as he worried about her. She didn't think so, but then Shinji thought of her as something of a sister, didn't he? Maybe that was it.

Right when she was about to turn to head to 5th division, Shinji grabbed her wrist and pulled her in the direction of 4th division.

"Uh, Taicho?"

"We're going to have Unohana treat those injuries first. Then, I'll have to have a word with you."

She sighed. She knew that she would lose any argument with him now, so she wordlessly followed him.

A half an hour later, she was just as fine as she was before she headed for 11th division.

"She'll be fine. She's actually quite sturdy. I know others that wouldn't have been able to walk this far with those injuries. Although, you didn't have to bring her here. I've taught her some basic healing kido for just in case."

Shinji, of course, forgot about that. But he wanted to make sure that someone else confirmed that she was fine. Shizuko would have tried to shrug it off.

"Oh, well, thank you anyway, Retsu."

Unohana smiled.

"Sure, no problem. However, there is something that I would like to talk to you about."

Shinji blinked, and then followed Unohana out. Before he shut the door, he looked back at Shizuko.

"You better be here when I get back."

Shizuko just nodded.

He followed Unohana down the hallway and into an empty room.

She faced him with a serious look.

"We have to talk about Shizuko."

A few minutes later, Shizuko turned her head when she heard the door open and saw Shinji there.

She stood up and prepared to follow him back to his office, where he would yell at her.

Their walk back was silent. Even after they got back to his office, they stayed silent for a few minutes.

It wasn't until after he sat down at his desk and she stood in front of him that he said something.

"Shizuko, what were you thinking when you accepted the challenge to fight him? I know you heard all the rumors concerning how strong he is. Didn't you stop to think that he would have killed you if I haven't stepped in?"

Shizuko was silent for a moment before she spoke.

"I was thinking that it would be interesting to fight him. I have heard all the rumors, but I figured it was about time to confirm the rumors myself when he challenged me. I knew that he could have killed me, but I knew of my own capabilities and judged that I would have gotten out okay. As Unohana said, she taught me some healing kido just in case I needed it."

Shinji sighed. He should have known that she would try to justify her actions like that.

"Still, the point is that you got hurt, and your injuries could have been worse if I didn't show up. You have to be careful. I can't bail you out every time you get in trouble."

Now it was Shizuko's turn to sigh.

"With all due respect Taicho, I didn't ask to be bailed out. And I am a careful person, even if I don't act like it some of the time. I was going to be fine. To be honest, I think you worry a bit too much about me. Just trust me a little about this."

He knew that she was careful about keeping secrets, but he wasn't too sure about anything beyond that.

"It's not that I don't trust you. But you're not always a careful person. Accepting a fight against a Taicho was a reckless move. I just don't want you to get hurt."

She knew that he had good intentions, but he didn't need to worry about her so much. But, she wasn't going to argue with him. She didn't want to have a fight with him.

"I understand, Taicho."

Shinji stood up and walked over towards her. He put his hands on his shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Just promise me that you won't do anything so reckless again."

She bit her lip. She wasn't sure if she could make the promise without breaking it in the future, especially with whatever Aizen was up to.

But, Shinji wasn't going to let her go unless she made the promise.

"I promise, Taicho."

Shinji nodded and let her go.

"Okay. You can go back to your room to rest."

She nodded and left.

Shinji sighed. He knew that he would have to take Unohana's advice soon. She had let out too much of her reiastu for that to go unnoticed by too many people.

He stood there as he thought out his next plan of action. He had still never seen her shikai.

But, she was clearly good enough to start bankai training. He wondered if she did and just never told anyone.

Either way, he was going to have her tested. He was going to have to call on a few people and they would have to take her by surprise, but they had to get her to stop hiding her power.

If she was good enough, he would sign her up to take the Taichos exam. The position for Taicho of 10th division had been opened this whole time without anyone stepping up to claim it. This could be the only chance she got.

Especially if Central 46 caught on to her. He didn't want them to think that she was planning something dangerous just because she chose to hide her power.

No, that would not do.

With a plan in mind, he walked out of his office and went to go inform the others of his plan.

…

Shizuko lay down on her bed and looked up at her ceiling. She wondered what she should do. She knew that she risked a bit if how she let herself cut loose earlier. Eventually, she may be asked to rise in rank. The downside to that was that she wouldn't be in the same division as Aizen. She had kept this rank so that she could keep an eye on him. Unfortunately, she was subjected to take orders from him, which wouldn't do any good in the long run.

What should she do?

It was then that she was struck by another vision.

Unidentified blurs swam in front of her mind's eye. She tried to decipher it, but all she saw was white, black, dark blue, and a flash of yellow. She couldn't make any sense of it. She could only pray that some disaster wasn't about to strike.

She looked up when she heard her door open. It was Gin.

She sat up and smiled at him.

"Hello there. I don't mean to be mean, but don't you know that you should knock before entering."

His smile, of course, didn't falter.

"But you never knock when entering the Taicho's room."

"Okay, you got me there. Is there something you need?"

"No, I just wanted to ask you something."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Is there any reason you can't stand Aizen-fukutaicho?"

Her smile faltered. Where did that come from? Did she slip up somewhere?

"Why do you ask?"

"I just notice that you don't seem to like him a whole lot."

She smiled again, hoping it could pass off as genuine.

"I just have my reasons. What do you think of him?"

Gin, for the first time, frowned. This made her do a double take. He _never_ frowned before.

He looked out the door, and then shut it when he was sure no one was there.

"Can I tell you something?"

She nodded warily.

"Sure. What is it?"

Gin was silent for a moment before speaking up again.

"You know that he's up to something, right?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, you're always looking at him suspiciously and I sometimes see you try to keep an eye on him sometimes."

He must be referring to the times she didn't use her visions to watch the guy. Whoops.

"Besides, I know he's up to something as well."

Now her eyes widened. Huh?

"I've seen him do something to a friend of mine. Her reiastu got stolen. I need to get back at him for that."

This was the first time Shizuko was hearing this.

"But, in order for me to do that, I have to get on his good side and get him to trust me. So, if I do anything bad, would you forgive me?"

She blinked. She had never thought of taking that approach. But then that would mean being involved in his plans and being one of the ones hurting her friends. She wanted to protect them, and there was no way in hell that she was about to become his buddy. But having someone by his side and learning his secrets could be beneficial.

"I understand. I think I'll be able to forgive you. As you said, I know he's up to something too. I want to be able to keep my friends safe, so I've been hiding my abilities so that, if I have to fight him, I can have the upper hand. I suggest you keep some part of your power hidden too so that you can have the element of surprise as well. Just be careful, ok? It's too easy to blur the line between right and wrong."

He nodded.

"Okay."

"And this conversation never leaves this room."

"Got it."

"Don't worry. We'll get back at him for what he did to your friend and we'll be able to protect everyone else in the process. I'm leaving it to you to find his weakness."

He nodded.

"Got it."

"Good. You better leave before Aizen finds you here."

"Okay, see ya!"

"See ya."

She waved as he shut the door. For some reason, she found it comforting that she wasn't the only one trying to take Aizen down. It was a relief to know that she wasn't alone, but she couldn't afford to involve anyone else from now on.

For now, it would be just her and Gin who would find Aizen out.


	18. Chapter 18

**Gooooooood Morning Bleach fans! Or….good evening Bleach fans! Or…..whatever time you are reading this. Anyway, I am, once again, back with a new chapter. Sorry it took me a while to get back to this. I got sidetracked and it took a bit longer than anticipated to figure out how this chapter will play out. I hope that I didn't piss anyone off about the spoiler from the last chapter because that was what I read from the actual Bleach manga. **

**Anyway, I am almost done with the TBTP part of the story. I will soon get back to Karakura Town and everything that is going on there. I figure that there will be….one, possibly two, more chapters after this one and then we go back to the future! (I love that movie! XD) **

**Well, that was all I needed to say.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. No matter how much I wish otherwise. I do own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 18

Shizuko was wandering around through the barracks, taking her time walking to Shinji's office. It wasn't that she didn't want to see him. She was just in no particular hurry. She was also checking out what everyone else was doing and didn't want to accidentally running into anything.

Hiyori was beating up Kisuke again. Yoruichi was still asleep (lucky). Shunsui was also asleep, but that was going to change because Lisa was heading his way. Ukitake was sick again. Rose was playing on his guitar. Love was reading a manga. She remembered that Rose asked her to steal that from him so he could read it. Kaien was asleep. Kensei was yelling at Mashiro for being annoying.

Shizuko yawned. Honestly, couldn't Shinji let her sleep in once in a while? It was seven in the morning. She wasn't a morning person.

She looked up to see Shinji and Aizen heading for his office as well. She started to run to catch up to them.

"Taicho!"

Shinji looked over to see Shizuko running his way. He waved.

"Hey Shizuko."

They started to walk over to Shinji's office together. That was, until something happened that never happened before.

Shizuko accidentally swept over to where they were standing with her mind's eye, but had stopped when she noticed something.

She saw herself and Shinji. However, Aizen wasn't with them. Instead, there was some other shinigami standing where he was supposed to be.

She focused on the guy standing before her. It was Aizen, or, at least, he looked like Aizen. The man in her vision looked nothing like him. What was going on?

She slowed down as she delved into the past, looking for some clue as to what was going on. Then she froze as she saw something.

_Aizen held up his released Zanpakuto. She was surrounded by mist and saw more than one Shizuko surrounding her._

"_My Zanpakuto reflects the water in the mist to create these doppelgangers of you. It is to confuse the enemy during a fight."_

That had to be it. He lied about his Zanpakuto.

_**That's the only explanation. We must be under an illusion from his Zanpakuto. Do you want to call him out on it?**_

Shizuko thought for a few seconds.

_No. As far as he's concerned, we know nothing about this. Let's just keep this a secret so that we can surprise him later. He may be depending heavily on people being under the illusion. Plus, him lying about his Zanpakuto still isn't enough to prove that he's up to something. We have to keep an eye on him. _

_**I know you don't want anyone to get hurt, but you should probably tell Shinji. He doesn't seem to trust him as well. You can't do this alone.**_

_I'm not doing this alone. I have Gin to trust._

_**I don't think two people can take someone like him down. I don't want you to get hurt because you're too busy trying to make sure everyone else is okay. Please tell someone.**_

Shizuko knew that she was right. She couldn't handle this alone forever. But, it was too early. She just needed to wait.

_I'll consider it._

After that, everything was silent. She looked up to see Shinji coming around the corner from his office.

"There you are. I was wondering where you went. Is something wrong?"

Whoops. She forgot that she had to keep walking with her Taicho. She smiled, hoping it was genuine.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just a bit tired, I guess."

Shinji was silent for a moment before speaking.

"Well, in that case, why don't you go and rest. I need you wide awake and at your best today."

She blinked in confusion.

"Huh? Why's that?"

"I just have a surprise for you. I need you to be at the training grounds this afternoon for something."

She nodded slowly.

"Okay."

Shinji smiled.

"Great! I expect to see you there at three! See ya then!"

Shizuko was a bit suspicious. He almost never wanted her out of his sight. What was going on?

She shrugged it off. At least she could go back to sleep for a bit.

….

It was almost three and Shizuko was on her way to the training grounds. She didn't know what Shinji's surprise was. She could just look ahead at the training grounds to see what was going on, but that would ruin the surprise. She wanted to keep it a surprise for Shinji. She figured he deserved a genuine reaction from her and not a fake one whenever someone tried to "surprise" her.

She walked around another building and saw the training grounds in sight. There was no one there. She didn't even feel any reiastu in the area. Was Shinji late? She looked around at the trees. It probably wouldn't hurt to go further in. He said it was a surprise, so it could be that he was hiding.

She walked into the trees. As she made it to another clearing on the training grounds, something came down from above her.

Yoruichi's foot had hit the ground with enough force to create a hole in the ground. She knew that that wouldn't have hit her.

"What the hell?" Hiyori blinked. She didn't catch what was going on until Yoruichi came up on Shizuko and then Shizuko disappeared.

"That's my line!"

Shizuko jumped down from a tree she had taken refuge in when she saw Yoruichi coming.

Shizuko looked around to see that Hiyori and Yoruichi weren't the only ones there. There was Kisuke and, of course, Shinji.

"…..What's going on here?"

Yoruichi was the first to speak.

"You've been holding back for too long."

"Huh?"

"She means that it's about time that you show us what you're made of and to go forward in rank. You've been a fourth seat for too long. I know you're more capable than you've been letting on."

Shizuko turned to see Shinji giving her a serious look. It looked like there was no way out of this one.

Shinji continued.

"You shouldn't be hiding your power, especially after your fight with Kenpachi. You need to go forward in rank so that the stiffs in Central 46 won't get paranoid about you just because you don't want a higher rank."

She looked down. She didn't think that she had let out that much reiastu. Maybe she should consider this…..

But then she wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Aizen without her visions. She probably wouldn't have enough time to be able to spy on him if she advanced.

But then, Gin was the third seat now and was trying to get on Aizen's good side. Maybe she could leave things to him.

Kisuke walked up towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder, making her look up.

"Don't worry about it. Everyone's right. You need to advance. In fact, I think you're ready to take the Taicho's exam."

"Taicho? Are you serious?"

Despite the fact that Hiyori liked Shizuko, she couldn't help but be skeptical.

"How do you know that? She doesn't even have a bankai! How can she qualify?"

"Actually, Shizuko achieved bankai a while ago, didn't you?"

This made Shizuko exasperated.

"Nii-san, has anyone ever told you that you have a big mouth?"

Kisuke rubbed the back of his head as she said that.

Shinji and Hiyori, however, were shocked.

"Why didn't you say that you reached bankai? I could have helped you with your training."

Shinji wouldn't admit it, but he felt left out that she wouldn't tell him that she made so much progress with her Zanpakuto. Speaking of which…

"We haven't even seen your shikai! And now dickhead over there is saying that you reached bankai! You should have said something!"

Shizuko just shrugged like it was no big deal, which made Hiyori a bit more annoyed.

"Well, why don't you show us your shikai then?"

"You should also show us your bankai! I haven't even seen it yet. I'm a bit annoyed that you kept that a secret from me!"

Of course, Yoruichi only knew about her shikai. Shizuko should have known that Yoruichi wouldn't have liked about hearing that she achieved bankai a while ago.

Shizuko hesitated, then spoke up.

"My bankai is still a work in progress; however, I have plenty of moves to demonstrate with on my shikai, so I will at least show you that."

Reluctantly, everyone agreed to just the shikai.

Shizuko let out a deep breath and then unsheathed her Zanpakuto.

"Observe…."

…

Two hours passed, and Shinji and Hiyori were definitely surprised about her Zanpakuto. It was definitely different.

However, Shizuko didn't seal her sword afterwards. Instead, a sheath appeared on her back to accommodate the new shape. It was a curved sword. Shinji thought that it was something based on the swords that were from the west, but he forgot who was supposed to have wielded them.

It was only about three feet long, maybe?

Anyway, when Shinji asked her about that, she said that it was actually a constant release Zanpakuto. When he asked why it was in its sealed state even though it was one, she said that it was some kind of agreement she made with her and now it didn't want to stick with it.

Shinji didn't ask any further questions, but something told him there was something she wasn't telling him.

Shinji pushed the thought away for the moment.

"Well, I believe that you are ready to take the exam. I'm sure that you can land this position."

She stared at him, and then looked down, feeling heat go to her cheeks for some reason.

Then suddenly, she felt someone grab her shoulders and looked up to stare right into Shinji's eyes.

Then he pulled her into a hug.

Before Shizuko could even begin to wonder what the hell was going on, he started speaking.

"Of course that would mean that I wouldn't get to see you as much. It's painful to have to part with my first love~!"

She sighed. It wasn't the first time he referred to her as his "first love", but it had been a while since he called her that, so she thought that he was done with it.

"Honestly, you're going to do this in front of my Nii-san?" She knew that Kisuke knew that Shinji wouldn't pull anything, but most guys didn't dare try anything in front of a girl's brother.

"Awwww…are you embarrassed?"

He was teasing her now.

She sighed again.

"Honestly, it's amazing that you manage to get any work done, Taicho."

He pulled away and looked her in the eyes, wearing a feigned hurt look on his face.

"Whaaaaat? You don't think I do my work?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Nooooo, that's not what I'm saying at all." Note the sarcasm.

"Oh, by the way, you don't need to keep calling me 'Taicho'. You can just call me Shinji."

Shizuko blinked.

"Huh?"

"Well, you're going to be a Taicho anyway, and you're informal with everyone to begin with, so just call me Shinji."

"Are you sure about that? I haven't even taken the exam yet. We don't even know if I'll pass."

Shinji shook his head.

"No, I know for certain that you'll pass. Now go rest up in the barracks while I go register ya for the exam."

She nodded and turned to leave.

"Ok. See ya, Shinji."

With that, everyone left to do their own thing.

However, what nobody noticed was the flash of silver that could be seen in the bushes if anyone had looked hard enough.

Gin poked his head out and stared in the direction Shizuko left. He was frowning.

Aizen told him to spy on Shizuko. For some reason, Aizen was very interested in her for some reason.

He knew that Shizuko was depending on surprising Aizen with her Zanpakuto's ability, but Aizen told Gin to report to him if he saw anything.

That was definitely something.

Now he had to make a decision. He and Shizuko were going against Aizen, but Gin was trying to get close to Aizen.

Shizuko said that she would forgive him, but would this be going too far?

Gin left the site, not overly happy about his next move.


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey everybody! I know you guys wanted this update! So here it is!**

**This is the LAST chapter of the TBTP part of the story. Sorry if I seemed to be lazy about the ending, but anyone who has read the manga or seen the episodes knows how that night went. I don't feel like repeating the whole thing. So don't be too upset about the ending. I'll be going back to Karakura town with the current Shizuko in the next update. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I do own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 19

Shizuko was over in the 12th division research lab, hanging out with Hiyori and Kisuke. She always found some of the stuff there interesting.

"Urahara."

Both Shizuko and Kisuke turned to see Mayuri walking towards them. He pointed to Shizuko, indicating that he was talking to her.

"I still want to do research on your reiastu. It has an odd sort of, for lack of a better term, aura surrounding it. It is definitely different from anyone else's."

This was not the first time he brought that up. And Shizuko didn't trust him too much. Mainly because he was creepy.

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

He never liked that, but with her brother in charge of the research division, he was limited on what he was allowed to do. Sticking pins and needles into his sister was out of the question.

"Hey Shizuko!"

Kisuke grabbed her arm and dragged her away into another part of the lab with Hiyori trailing behind.

"When do you take the Taicho's exam?"

"Tomorrow afternoon. The Soutaicho wanted to wait for certain Taichos to proctor the exam and tomorrow was the earliest that could be scheduled."

He nodded.

"I'm sure you'll do fine. You just need to stop holding back."

"I can stop holding back. I'm just not sure if I can cut it as a leader."

"Hey, if dickhead here was able to pass, I'm pretty sure you'll have no trouble with it either."

Shizuko smiled.

"Heeeeeeey~! Hiyori, you're so meeeeaaaaaaan~!"

Then she rolled her eyes. Her brother never changed. That was for sure.

Suddenly, someone walked in through a door. There went Shizuko's good mood.

"Urahara-san, there's something that you need to do."

Of course Aizen would show up. She swore that he did that just to piss her off.

She was especially wary of him now after the vision she had this morning. Or rather, what she could make of the vision she had this morning.

_Blurs of black and dark blue swirl around. There wasn't anything that made since in this chaos of dark colors. Then suddenly, a white circle appeared. It looked like….the moon! Her vision was starting to clear. That meant that it was going to happen sometime within the next few days._

_She tried to focus, but she still couldn't make out much detail. Maybe it was nighttime? That would explain why it was so dark. Wait. Duh! Of course it was night. Otherwise the moon wouldn't stand out so much._

_She also saw another flash of white, except this one was moving. Was it a Taicho's haori? Something was going to happen to one of them? _

_She felt a sense of dread. She knew most of them. She didn't want something to happen to them._

_She also saw a flash of yellow. Yellow? Where did that come from?_

_She started to hear broken sentences._

"_You bastard…hollowfi…Aizen…DAMN IT!"_

_That name that was spoken stood out the most as she woke up in a cold sweat._

Something horrible was going to happen. That was what her gut told her. She had to act before it did. If only she knew exactly when it would happen. She could only guess that it was going to be in a few days.

"What is it?"

Aizen's gaze gave nothing away. How that annoyed her.

"There has been some unusual hollow activity in Rukongai recently. We need someone to go check things out. It is mainly a recon mission, so there would be no need for you to prepare an attack. Just go investigate and come back."

He told her the location of the unusual hollow activity. It was very far away from the Seireitei.

She stared at him suspiciously.

"I'm afraid I can't accept any missions now. I have another thing I need to do tomorrow and I won't have time to go all the way out there. You're going to have to send someone else."

Unfortunately, Aizen wasn't going to back down.

"But it has been specified that someone from the 5th division should go and you're our most capable shinigami for the job."

"No I'm not. The most capable people would be Taicho, you, and Gin. I'm just a fourth seat."

"Gin has other duties he needs to attend to and Hirako-taicho and I are too busy to deal with it. That leaves you."

She narrowed her eye.

"What about a team? Shouldn't there be a team for a recon mission?"

"You would be able to pull it off better by yourself, and a shinigami of your caliber would be able to handle it herself if a fight should break out. Plus, if you need to be back by tomorrow, a team would only slow you down. This is an order from Hirako-taicho himself. He would have given it to you himself, but he is busy at the moment, so you had to hear it from me."

She knew that he was up to something. She didn't need a vision to know that. She just had a really strong gut feeling.

But, she had a feeling that he wasn't going to let this drop.

"Fine."

Aizen smirked. The bastard. He was definitely up to something.

Hiyori saw the look of mistrust, but didn't say anything about it.

"Well, then you better get going soon if you want to be back by tomorrow."

Aizen walked out. Kisuke was pretty sure something was wrong, but he didn't say anything. He trusted Shizuko enough to know what to do.

Hiyori didn't understand the look on Shizuko's face, but it was already almost evening and she needed to be back and ready by tomorrow afternoon.

"You might as well go and get it over with. Just think this will be the last time you have to take orders from him. You'll be the one giving orders after tomorrow."

Shizuko smiled. She knew that Hiyori was trying to motivate her, but she also didn't know that something terrible would happen this time around. Although, she would still be right about this being the last set of orders she would receive.

"Well, I guess I better get going. See ya later."

"See ya, Shizuko."

She looked back at her brother to see that he had a somewhat serious expression on his face. He knew something was wrong. But, she wasn't going to tell him.

She walked out the door to go get ready.

…

Shizuko was on her way to Shinji's office, wanting to let him know that she was leaving.

It was twilight now and, if Shizuko used shunpo the whole way, she would get to the site in an hour and a half. But, she knew she would have to conserve energy. She had no doubt that this was some kind of ambush. Aizen could not be trusted.

On her way there, she spotted Gin. She hadn't seen him in a while.

"Hey Gin!"

Gin looked over to see Shizuko walking his way. He smiled, hoping she wouldn't see through it.

"What's up?"

"Nothing. I'm being sent on a mission. I was just heading to Taicho's office to let him know that I'm going."

Gin hated that he had to do this.

"He's not in. There was some kind of meeting going on and it's going to take a while."

Shizuko frowned.

"Well, I don't have a while. I need to leave because I have to be back by tomorrow for something."

"Well, I can tell him for you. If it's that far away, you should go now. Plus, with how fast you are, I'm pretty sure it won't take you long to get back."

Shizuko nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then."

She crouched down so that she could whisper the next part.

"And remember to keep an eye on Aizen. He's really tricky. In fact," she lowered her voice some more, "I know for a fact that he lied about his Zanpakuto. If you ever saw it in action, then you need to figure out how to break the illusion it places on you. I think it's some kind of hypnosis."

Gin had almost let a shocked look show on his face, but he recovered.

"Really? Well, don't worry. I'll figure out how to break it."

Truth was he already knew that it was a type of hypnosis and he was going to find out how to break it. But, should he tell Aizen that Shizuko knew? If he did, Shizuko could lose her chance of having the upper hand on him. Then again, Gin already ruined that for her.

She smiled, not knowing what was going on in his head.

She stood back up and started walking away. She waved a hand.

"See ya."

Gin watched as she walked away. A moment later, he felt a presence behind him and turned around to see Aizen.

"Very good, Gin. You did just as I asked you to do."

Gin smiled back up at Aizen's own condescending smile.

Then, the look on his face changed.

"Tell me, what did she tell you just now?"

Gin looked him right in the eye as he told him.

"Nothing, really. Just that I need to keep an eye on you for her."

Aizen smiled that same smile again.

"I see. Well, it seems that she finally slipped up in trusting you. She should have allowed the possibility of a double agent, but that was her undoing. Now, go get Kaname and tell him that he needs to be over there."

Gin nodded and walked off towards 9th division, his face falling as he thought of what was going to happen to Shizuko.

…..

Shizuko was now walking through the forest after shunpoing for a while. She was halfway to the site and her guard was on high-alert. She wasn't going to take chances. She was going to go, foil the ambush or whatever Aizen had planned for her, then head back.

If need be, she would report to Shinji what happened, but that all depended on what would happen. She honestly wished that she had some control over the future visions. Then she would know what to expect. This was one of the few times that she actually wanted to see the future.

Well, she got what she wished for. At that moment, the vision came back, and it was crystal clear this time.

…..

Shinji was walking around the barracks looking for Shizuko. He hadn't seen her since she left to see Kisuke.

That had been a few hours ago.

He couldn't sense her anywhere. He was starting to worry.

At that moment, he spotted a flash of silver and walked up to his third seat.

"Hey Gin, have you seen Shizuko anywhere. I haven't seen her in a few hours."

Gin looked up at him with the same smile he always wore.

"Nope. I haven't seen her since this morning."

Shinji sighed.

"Thanks anyway."

He walked away. He was wondering if she was playing with Yoruichi. He quickly dismissed the idea because, if she was, they would have been all over the place playing tag.

He decided to go ask Kisuke.

…

Shizuko was on her way back to the Seireitei as fast as she possibly could. She couldn't believe what she saw. It just couldn't be true!

She had to go back. She had to warn them. She had to tell them everything.

She ran through the forest with reckless abandon. She didn't care if the branches and bushes scratched her up. She just had to get back before anything stopped her.

If she didn't, the whole thing would be her fault. She knew, but didn't tell. She had to get back. She had to tell them everything, no matter the consequences.

But, as she ran back in her terrified, shocked state, she had let her guard down. She wasn't prepared for someone following her right now.

By the time she realized her mistake, she could feel the person directly behind her.

She turned around just as the sword came down.

…..

"Hey! Kisuke!"

Urahara turned around to see Shinji. He looked worried about something.

"What is it, Hirako-san?"

"Have you seen Shizuko anywhere? I know she was here earlier."

Urahara gave him a confused look.

"She left a couple of hours ago for a mission you assigned her."

"Mission? I didn't assign her a mission."

Urahara's eyes widened as he heard this.

What was the meaning of this?

Shinji didn't like the look Urahara had on his face.

Suddenly, he looked him right in the eye with a very serious look on his face.

"You need to send someone out to Rukongai. I believe she may be in danger."

Shinji's eyes widened.

He left as soon as he heard the location she was sent to.

What was the meaning of this? What happened to his fourth seat?

…

The next day, Shizuko was nowhere to be found. Members of the 5th division looked everywhere, both at the site and the path she would have taken, but she wasn't anywhere. Not even her reiastu could be sensed.

Shinji was on edge. He didn't send her on a mission. This had to be an ambush. But who was after her? And why? As far as most people knew, Shizuko was just an ordinary shinigami that caused trouble from time to time. She never did anything to make anyone wish for her to be gone.

He hoped that she wasn't…

No! He refused to finish that thought. There was no way. There was no way that she was dead.

She had to be alive. She just had to.

Shinji turned around as he heard someone knock on his office door.

"Come in."

Aizen walked in with a solemn expression on his face.

"I'm sorry to say, but Urahara-san is just nowhere to be found. Not even her reiastu can be found. The Soutaicho's calling off the search. The record is that she was killed by a hollow without her remains being found."

Shinji looked straight at Aizen, disbelief shown on his face.

"What? But it's only been one day! Why give up the search now?"

"The Soutaicho said that there are other matters that need to be attended to and that we can't just keep using our resources just to find one officer. Sorry, Hirako-taicho, but there isn't anything more we can do."

Shinji wanted to protest, to scream at the old man, but he knew that that wouldn't get him anywhere closer to finding Shizuko.

"I understand. You may go now."

Aizen nodded, and then left.

Shinji walked over to his desk and sat down. He laid his elbow on the desk and his face in his hand as an indescribable pain started to throb in his chest.

….

A few days later, Shinji ran into Urahara and Hiyori. Hiyori had still kicked him on sight, but it didn't have the same energy to it as it had before and Urahara also had a sad look in his eyes.

It was clear that they all missed her. Hiyori especially felt bad because she had urged Shizuko on to get the mission over with as soon as possible. None of them wanted to give up the search, but they weren't given a choice, especially with the souls that had been disappearing throughout Rukongai.

9th division had been sent to check things out, but no one had heard from them yet.

What no one knew was that that night was the one that Shizuko had feared the most.

The night that her friends became vizards.


	20. Chapter 20

…**Ehhhh…..Hi?**

***Jumps behind a barrier* I'M SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY! I honestly didn't mean to not update for a few months! It was just that classes caught up to me and I got caught up with other projects! I meant to update sooner, but, somehow, I just lost my writing muse and my Bleach muse was taking longer than my other muses to return. **

**On the other hand, I have a couple of new stories that you may be interested in if you are a KH or FF7 fan. The stories are called "Vessel" and "Monster" respectively. And, even though it is way late to bring it up now, I also had an FF7 Christmas one-shot. **

**Again, I'm sorry! But, at least I prove that I'm still alive and so is this story!**

**Well, I've kept you guys waiting long enough. We are back in Karakura Town and going forward with the plot. So, here you go.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I do own my OC, Shizuko.**

Chapter 20

Shizuko slowly regained consciousness. She briefly wondered where she was until she saw that she was on a couch. Wait, when did she get on a couch? She sat up and looked around. Oh yeah, she was at the vizard's warehouse. She was expecting to wake up at Urahara's place.

No one else was there. She figured that everyone was downstairs, training as usual.

Then she looked out a window. It was sunny out, so she didn't think that she had been out for long.

Which raised another question: why was she asleep on the couch?

_**Do you really need to be reminded of what happened?**_

Shizuko jumped at the sound of Shadobisuto's voice. And then it all came back to her. The training…..lunch…..shocking Shinji…..the shadow hollow…..and talking with Shadobisuto.

Her stomach growled as she thought back to what happened.

Damn. That must have taken a lot of energy out of her to make her this hungry.

She got up….then fell back down. Her legs, for some reason, just gave out from underneath her when she tried to stand.

_Owwww….what the hell? I was only out for a couple of hours!_

_**Try two days. And your legs fell asleep.**_

_What!_

It was true. Now that she was more awake, she was aware of how dead her legs felt. Of course, now they felt as though they were being pricked by pins and needles as the feeling returned to them.

Wait…..did she say two days?

Crap! Urahara was probably going to chew her out for this one.

_**Don't worry. The vizards already took care of that in your sleep. By the way, don't forget about our deal.**_

Deal? Oh wait, now she remembered. But how does someone go about explaining _that_ without sounding crazy?

She tried getting up as the feeling returned to her legs, but then someone ran up to her.

"Shizuko! What are you doing on the floor? You're supposed to be on the couch resting!" As if she was on the floor by choice. But, she refrained from saying any biting remarks. After all, she couldn't stand properly, so it was best if she didn't pick any fights right now.

Shizuko looked up to see Mashiro. She looked pretty worried.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I got plenty of rest as it is. I've been asleep for a couple of days apparently."

Mashiro helped her back up on the couch. However, Shizuko decided to sit instead of lay. Her back was hurting too much to lie down.

Her stomach growled again. Actually, to be more accurate, it felt like her stomach was trying to eat her from the inside out. She needed to eat some food before the couch started to look tasty to her.

"Um…..Mashiro, it wouldn't happen to be lunchtime, would it?" Please say it was, please say it was…..

Mashiro shook her head.

"We had lunch an hour ago."

Great, now she had to wait until she got back to Urahara's for dinner. What time was it, anyway?

"But we did save some food for you in case you woke up."

Mashiro was now her best friend.

"Great! Could you bring it over? I'm starved!"

"Sure!"

Mashiro started going in the direction of the kitchen to get the food she spoke of.

However…she decided to run down halfway down the stairs first to make an announcement.

"HEEEEEY! SHE'S AWAKE!"

That caught everybody's attention.

The next thing Shizuko knew was that she was surrounded by everybody and getting asked a bunch of questions.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Rose asked.

"She's been out for two days. What do you think? She's probably hungry," Lisa pointed out.

"Do you remember what happened?" Shinji was getting too close for comfort.

"Do you know what that thing was?" Ichigo asked before being shoved to the side by Hiyori.

"Why did that come out of your Zanpakuto?" Hiyori practically demanded.

Honestly, she just wanted her damn food before being interrogated. Where was Mashiro?

"Hey! Out of the way! She needs food!"

Mashiro to the rescue!

Shizuko nodded her thanks as she was handed the bento.

Taking the hint, everyone waited long enough for her to take a couple of bites of food. However, reality of the fact was that she scarfed down the food like a starving wolf.

She was done in under a minute. Ichigo gave her a flat stare.

"You've been spending a lot of time with Yoruichi-san, haven't you?"

She shrugged.

"Maybe…"

She got into a few eating contests with the woman. She kind of wish she was having one right now because she was still hungry. How much reiastu did that shadow hollow take from her?

"Uh-huh. Anyway, are you okay? You were out for two days. We called Urahara-san to let him know of this. He said to take it easy and to come back to the shop for a check-up as soon as you're up for walking."

Shizuko nodded.

"Thanks Strawberry." A vein twitched on Ichigo's forehead from the irritating nickname, but he left it alone. Now was not the time to start a fight.

"And I'm fine. I just slept like a dead person, and now that the feeling is coming back to my legs, I think I'll head back to Urahara's place. I have to make up for two days of his training."

Hiyori waved her hands around.

"Whoa, wait a minute! How the hell do you have time for his training when you've been coming here everyday?"

Shizuko gave her a flat look as she answered.

"Believe it or not, I'm actually still awake for a couple of hours after I go back. Plenty of time for a bit of his training and maybe even some shunpo tag with Yoruichi."

Hiyori decided not to ask how she found time to sleep. She might be a smartass about it.

Shizuko then slowly got up to test her legs. They seemed to be able to hold her up now.

"And as for your other questions, Shadobisuto said that it was a shadow hollow. However, she wouldn't tell me about why it came up and out of her. She's actually been keeping quite a few things from me."

Shizuko frowned as she looked around, looking for the Zanpakuto in question.

"Oh, it's over here."

Shizuko sighed in relief when she saw Hachi carrying her over. He handed the Zanpakuto to her.

"Thanks, Hachi." Hachi nodded to her.

"So, I'm guessing your Zanpakuto is trying to get you to figure things out for yourself?" Shinji asked. He didn't think it was an unusual thing. She wouldn't be the first one to have a Zanpakuto like that.

Shizuko shook her head as she strapped the Zanpakuto to her back.

"Maybe…" The problem was it felt a bit more than that, but she wasn't going to say that out loud.

"Well, I need to go check in with Urahara."

"Why do you need to head back to Urahara's everyday? It's not like there's any harm in staying here overnight once in a while," said Ichigo.

Shizuko looked over at Ichigo.

"Urahara only gave me a few rules to follow while I stay there and that was one of them. Considering that he's willing to put up with me when he has a full house, I figured coming back before dark is the least I can do for the guy."

Ichigo understood now. She was grateful and was trying to show it. That made sense.

"Oh, and Strawberry….."

"What?" He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he didn't expect to be flipped onto his back in the next second.

"Since I wasn't able to kick your ass yesterday, I'll have to settle for that."

"Why you….."

"Later! And thanks for the food!" She was out of there before Ichigo could get up and retaliate.

Shinji shook his head. Honestly, she was no different from the one he knew.

…..

Renji and Chad were taking a break from training. They sat around the table back up in Urahara's shop while Ururu was getting them some water.

Renji decided that it was a good time as any to start texting a friend back in Soul Society.

"…Who's Toshi?" Renji gave a shout as a voice suddenly spoke from right next to him. He looked over his shoulder to see the human girl who was missing for the past two days. The human who Aizen was after and needed to be watched.

Chad said nothing, just stared with a bewildered expression on his face. He didn't sense her coming as well, so this was just as much as a surprise for him as it was for Renji.

"Where the hell have you been? And how the hell did you sneak up on me?"

Shizuko flicked her eyes from the phone to the shocked redhead.

"I've been somewhere. And that didn't answer my question. Is Toshi short for something? Who is Toshi?"

A tick mark formed on Renji's forehead.

"A friend. Now where have you been? You can't just sneak off like that when you're being hunted!"

"Ah! I see you have come back." Shizuko and Renji turned their attention to Urahara, who had just entered the room.

"Yep. I know I need to catch up on training after being gone," Shizuko said while ignoring the glaring pineapple head.

Urahara waved his fan and shook his head.

"That can wait. You should probably just rest now. Besides, I believe that Hitsugaya wanted to see you….." Urahara looked at Renji for confirmation.

Renji nodded.

"Yeah. Hitsugaya-taicho has some questions he wants to ask you."

Shizuko could already guess what at least one of those questions was.

"Okay. But I can't guarantee that I'll be able to provide favorable answers." Renji frowned at her, but nodded. He dialed Hitsugaya's number and called to let him know that the human came back. He also called Ikkaku and Yumichika. After all, everyone was wondering the same thing.

What did Aizen want with this girl?

_Ilfort Grantz had released his Zanpakuto and attacked Ururu. Jinta entered the fight to protect Ururu, but Ilfort proved to be too powerful for him._

_Renji managed to block the arrancar's next attack to let the kids escape._

_When they got to the front door of the shop, the human who had moved in a few days before this attack opened the door and helped them in. However, Ilfort caught onto her reiatsu and saw her before the door closed._

"_So, the target is here!" Renji frowned. Target? Was he talking about that human?_

"_Once I'm finished with you, I can collect that human and present her to Aizen. He will be very pleased with me to see that I've caught her."_

_Renji's eyes widened. Just what did Aizen want with the human?_

"_Like you're going to get pass me!"_

"_We'll see, brother."_

Even now, none of them had an answer as to why Aizen was hunting this girl. All he knew was that one day she moved in while he was out on patrol, and then when he told Hitsugaya about her being targeted by Aizen, she started going off somewhere and usually didn't come back until right before dark.

Since she was back, it was best to gather everyone now to question her themselves.

"Shizuko, I was told that you had some misfortune earlier and needed to be checked on."

Shizuko looked over to see Tessai. She nodded.

"Uh, sure." She followed him out of the room. It was now planned that she would be questioned as soon as Tessai was done checking on her well-being and as soon as everyone could get there.

Hopefully, they would get some answers about this human.

**I am sorry for the shortness of this chapter. This was the best that I could do for this chapter. At least it's better than no update at all, right?**

**Also, who is Toshi? Toshi is actually another OC of mine whose story starts at an earlier arc. Yes! That means that I'm planning another Bleach story now that my Bleach muse has been returning! **

**Don't worry! I'm not stopping this story just because of it. I'm just saying that I'm coming up with more plans.**

**Now, please review and tell me what you think. I've had more trouble than anticipated trying to write out this chapter, so I'm afraid that it's actually quite bad.**

**Hopefully the next chapter will be out A LOT sooner. Later!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Okay, before you all contemplate killing me for not updating in a few weeks, let me explain some things. First of all, my old computer had crashed. Yeah, and the new computer didn't have Microsoft Word, so I had to wait a few days before I could actually start writing out the new chapter. And then a bunch of other stuff happened so that, by the time I went on a vacation with my family, I didn't have this completely finished. **

**But, I did bring my laptop with me so that I could finish the little bit I had left to write with the possibility of updating while out of town. Especially since an anonymous reviewer who goes by Meg started sending me reviews on my first day of vacation. However, I had encountered a problem: I didn't have access to the internet where I was. My phone still received emails, which was how I knew about the reviews, but I was gone for two weeks without internet. And, since the reviews were anonymous, I had no way of getting in touch with you Meg, so sorry about the lack of response to the reviews.**

**I would also like to apologize to the rest of my readers for making you wait…again. But, things are going to get really interesting in this chapter and the next. I promise you this!**

**That's all I have to say before the chapter starts.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I do own Shizuko and her Zanpakuto.**

Chapter 21

Shizuko was focusing intently on the drawing in her sketchbook. Tessai had finished with the checkup and Urahara had given her some food after her stomach decided that it didn't want to keep quiet.

The sketch before her was of Shinji and Hiyori. She kept pouring over the sketch, thinking for some reason that something was off about it. She had prided herself for her photographic memory, so she knew that she hadn't made any mistakes when drawing either person. So why did it feel like that there was something amiss with the picture?

Suddenly, the door to the dining room opened, revealing the redhead, Renji. She shut the sketchbook as a group, who she sensed were fellow shinigami, filed in behind Renji.

They all took a seat around the table. Urahara and Yoruichi were the last two to come in and find seats. They sat next to her.

Shizuko looked around at the group of people, recognizing the white-haired kid from…..how long had she been in this town now?

Anyway, the kid sat across from her. To his right was a woman with strawberry-blonde hair and…assets to give Orihime a run for her money. To the woman's other side sat two men. One was bald with…..pink eyeliner? And the guy next to him had feathers on his face. She was going to have to ask him about the feathers later. For some reason, a small twinge of pain came out of nowhere in her head. What was with these headaches?

She would need to remember to take some headache medicine later. Medicine not prepared by Tessai, but she wasn't going to say that out loud.

Renji sat next to the kid across from her and on his other side sat a petite, black-haired woman.

The kid was the first one to start speaking.

"So, you're the human who Aizen is after?"

"I typically respond to Shizuko, but yes. That is me."

"…Anyway, I don't suppose you know just why Aizen is after you, do you?"

Shizuko shook her head.

"Not a clue. He just showed up out of nowhere, gave me an offer I refused, and then the next day, hollows and the hollows who called themselves 'Arrancars' just started coming after me. They kept saying 'Aizen-sama this' and 'Aizen-sama that'. They just kept running me out of whatever town I happened to be in until I came here. I assume you know what happened after I got here."

The kid nodded.

"Yes, we do. We also want to know if it is actually Aizen who is after you and not just someone else. Do you have proof that the person you met was Aizen?"

Shizuko nodded and flipped through her sketchbook until she found the drawing she wanted. She flipped it over so that everyone else could see the same sketch of Aizen that she showed to the vizards. What she didn't know was that he had discarded his glasses by now, so they were still in the sketch.

"That's Aizen, all right," said the bald shinigami.

"Wow! That's a pretty good sketch," said the blonde shinigami.

"Okay, so you have met Aizen. So you don't even have a clue as to why Aizen might be after you. No special abilities or any information you have concerning hollows and shinigami that seemed strange compared to what you typically heard from the local shinigami?"

She hesitated for a second before answering, but everyone had caught it. For just a second, her eyes had narrowed slightly and a guarded look passed through her features. But, she composed herself and acted as if the moment had never happened.

"Nope. Not a thing. Sorry that I couldn't be more helpful, but I really don't know anything about the situation I'm in, other than I need to fight in order to stay alive and out of Hueco Mundo."

Shizuko saw the look the kid was giving her. He didn't believe her for a second.

"Honestly, kid, I don't really know why Aizen and Kaname are after me."

Toshiro was just about to go off on her about the kid comment, when another key word from her statement caught his attention.

"Wait…..we didn't say anything about Kaname. How do you know about him?"

Shizuko frowned.

"Who's Kaname?" Now it was Toshiro's turn to frown.

"You just told us that he and Aizen are after you."

Her frown deepened. Did she really say something about a Kaname? But, who was Kaname?

"…Huh?" That was all she could think of to say. She really didn't know where that name came from.

Toshiro was wondering why she suddenly looked confused. Surely she knew more about the situation if she knew that someone else was working with Aizen.

"Shizuko….." upon saying her name, Toshiro came to another realization, "hey, don't you have a last name as well?"

Shizuko snapped out of her thoughts as she heard herself being addressed.

"Huh? Sorry, what did you say?"

Toshiro sighed.

"I was asking you what your last name is."

Shizuko went "Oooh…." Then scratched the back of her head.

"Well, actually I – "

"Hey Shizuko!"

Shizuko jumped as Urahara had all but shouted in her ear.

"Ah! What!" She didn't like it when people shouted in her ear like that.

"I just remembered that I forgot to ask Tessai to look at that injury on your back. You better have that taken care of now before we forget again."

Shizuko frowned.

"Wait what injury are you…."

Shizuko had no time to protest because Yoruichi had already stood up and, thanks to a hand grabbing the back of her jacket, took Shizuko with her out of the room.

Once they were gone, Urahara looked back at the group of shinigami who were all giving him strange looks.

"Uh, Urahara, would you mind explaining why you had her dragged out of here like that? We were still questioning her," said Renji.

Urahara brought his fan in front of his face as he gave them all a serious look.

"Well, there are just some things you need to know about Shizuko that she can't tell you herself."

Rukia frowned.

"Why's that?"

Urahara snapped his fan shut and started what was bound to be a long explanation.

…..

"WAAAAAAAH!" That was all Ichigo could say right before he hit a boulder face-first. His short flight was courtesy of none other than Hiyori. As usual.

"Are you even trying, Baldy!"

Yep, just another typical day of training for the vizards. Just without Shizuko. Despite the fact that they didn't say anything about it, the human had actually grown on a few of them.

Shinji was just hoping that whatever that shadow hollow thing was, Urahara had that issue sorted out. If anyone could solve that kind of problem, Urahara was definitely one of them.

At least, that was what he was hoping when Hachi suddenly stood up.

"We have a visitor."

That was all he said as Shinji sense Hachi create a hole in the barrier big enough for someone to come in. Someone with familiar reiastu.

"What could she want?"

"Why don't you let me tell you?"

Yep. The visitor was none other than Yoruichi. The only question was what did she want with them?

Shinji stood up and turned around. Everybody stopped what they were doing and walked towards the purple-haired woman. Even Ichigo and Hiyori stopped training and walked over to where everyone was gathering. They could sense that she had some news for them that they needed to hear.

"Yoruichi-san, what are you doing here?" asked Ichigo.

"I came here to talk about Shizuko."

"What, nothing bad happened to her, right?" Shinji asked in a nonchalant manner.

Yoruichi shook her head.

"No, but there are some things that I need to explain about the situation surrounding her."

"We already know." Yoruichi frowned at Shinji.

"Oh, you do?"

Shinji nodded.

"Yeah. Shizuko is the reincarnation of Urahara's sister."

"Wait, Urahara has a sister?" Ichigo asked. He was never told anything about who Shizuko used to be.

"He _had_ a sister," Shinji confirmed before moving on with his explanation.

"Aizen had her killed about 100 years ago for some reason, and is now chasing after her reincarnation now that she has appeared. The only thing I don't get is why. My best guess is that she has something that was passed on with her soul into her next life, but I can't be certain."

"Wait, you came up with all of that? Just how long have you guys known about this?" Ichigo could see now that this revelation didn't happen just now.

Ignoring Ichigo entirely, Shinji just continued, "Isn't that right, Yoruichi?"

Yoruichi stared back at Shinji, and then took a glance at everyone else. After a moment of silence, she closed her eyes and sighed.

"I have to say…..I'm really disappointed in you, Shinji." Shinji's eyes widened.

"Huh?"

Yoruichi stared at him, frown on her face.

"It's one thing to not recognize one of your own friends after such a long time, but I can't believe you think that Shizuko had been reincarnated. You too, Hiyori."

Both of the blondes blinked in surprise, and then a look of realization dawned on their faces.

"Wait! You're not saying what I think you're saying, are you?" asked Hiyori.

Yoruichi's attention turned to her.

"I mean, come on. I know you both only saw it for a day, but surely you haven't forgotten what Shizuko Urahara's Zanpakuto looks like, have you? Or even what its ability is?"

Silence overcame everyone as they understood what Yoruichi was telling them.

"Wait. So what exactly is going on here?" Well, everybody but Ichigo understood what Yoruichi was telling them.

"Basically, Urahara's sister was never killed by Aizen in the first place," said Yoruichi.

…..

Shizuko was starting to get annoyed by Urahara. Really, he was. She did remember getting an injury on her back, but she certainly didn't have any problems with it after she woke up. She was pretty sure that one of the vizards had taken care of that for her.

But nooooooo. She had to be dragged off her ass by Yoruichi, who had disappeared somewhere shortly after dropping her off in a room down the hall, and trapped in a barrier by Tessai. A barrier that, despite being told otherwise, she was sure didn't do anything but hold her there. She was tempted to ask if she looked like an idiot to them.

She was wondering what he was talking about with the shinigami. Could it have anything to do with this Kaname person who just came up out of nowhere in the interrogation? It couldn't be about the fact that she couldn't remember her last name. She hadn't even told Urahara or the vizards that.

_**You're eventually going to have to tell them about that little fact.**_

_Not now, Shadobisuto._

She didn't even want to talk about that now.

Suddenly, the door opened to reveal Urahara, who was hiding his face behind a fan again.

"Well, I see you're doing fine." Shizuko rolled her eyes.

"I was telling you that I am fine. Any injuries I had were already taken care of." Tessai was now taking down the barrier he had formed around her to prevent her from eavesdropping on the conversation in the other room.

"Just had to be on the safe side," Urahara assured her.

"Besides, I need you in top shape for your next activity," he said as he tossed her Shadobisuto. She caught it, eyebrow raised.

"And just what is that?" Before she could get an answer from him, Urahara walked out of the room, leaving her to follow after him.

"H-Hey! I was asking you a question!"

"And you'll get your answer in a minute," he assured her as he started climbing down the ladder to the underground training room.

When they got down there, Shizuko saw that all of the shinigami were gathered there as well. Yoruichi was still missing. Just where did she go?

"Yo! You sure you want her to fight one of us?" asked the bald shinigami.

Wait, did he say fight? Shizuko took a glance at Urahara to see him smiling at her.

"Don't worry. It's only a little sparring match. Nothing bad will happen….as long as you don't seriously injure each other."

"Wait, what?" Instead of giving her a response, he turned back to the group of shinigami.

"Now, the question is who to have you fight against?" He eyed the group carefully. Neither Ikkaku, Yumichika, nor Renji would be of any use in the demonstration he said he'd give them. He wasn't sure about Matsumoto….

"Ah! I know! Shizuko, I would like for you to spar with Hitsugaya."

**I hope that this chapter was interesting to you. Yes, the truth, or at least part of it, has been revealed! The question now is how and why. I welcome any guesses. Meg, your guess was heading in the right direction, and the rest of your questions will be answered later.**

**Now, I'm sorry that the last chapter was rushed. I hoped that this one came out better.**

**Okay, now review and tell me what you think. I need to sleep off the jetlag and catch up on other people's stories.**

**Later!**


	22. Chapter 22

**I'm back! Sorry for the wait. A lot of stuff has been happening lately.**

**Also, if you don't have an account on this site, I can't give any direct replies outside of chapters, so I'm sorry if it seems like I'm ignoring you guys, but fact is I'm not good at staying in contact with people. So sorry about the inconsistent updates. I'm not an organized person. I don't have a set time during the day in which to write. **

**That's how it is.**

**Disclaimer: For the 22****nd**** time in this story, I don't own Bleach. None of the characters, places, etc. BUT Shizuko is mine.**

Chapter 22

"….Say what?" Shizuko asked as the kid, who was apparently Hitsugaya, stepped forward to frown at Urahara.

"Urahara, are you sure about this?" he asked.

Urahara waved his fan in a cheerful manner.

"Of course I'm sure! After all, you remember what I told you, right? Besides, this is just a demonstration of Shizuko's Zanpakuto. So there's nothing to worry about."

Shizuko blinked as she processed what was being said. Demonstration? Why did she need to give a demonstration? She still wasn't completely sure what her Zanpakuto's power was. And she had to fight a kid? But that kid was wearing a white jacket-like thing over his uniform. She knew what that meant. It meant that he was…

"Wait! You want me to fight a kid who's a Taicho?" she practically yelled in surprise.

"Yep!" Never before had she wanted to pound someone so mercilessly. But, these people were helping her with Aizen and her training, so she supposed that she didn't have much of a choice in the first place.

However, she had a problem.

_How am I supposed to give a demonstration on a power I don't understand?_

_**Don't worry. Just go with it for now. Everything will be fine.**_

_How can you guarantee that?_

_**Just do it.**_

Shizuko sighed. She was going to get the crap beaten out of her. She just knew it.

Nevertheless, she unsheathed Shadobisuto and took a stance.

Hitsugaya still looked a bit unsure, but he pulled out his Zanpakuto anyway, hoping that Urahara was right.

"Shikai should do just fine. No need to do bankai." Hitsugaya nodded.

"Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyorinmaru!" Shizuko's eyes widened as the water and ice dragon appeared before her. She could tell right off the bat that it was powerful…..and out of her league.

_**You could actually try to act more positive.**_

Shizuko shook her head. What was she thinking? This wasn't a fight to the death. It was just a spar. A demonstration. She had nothing to worry about, right?

She was snapped out of her thoughts as the dragon came at her. She managed to jump away, but some of the water splashed onto her jacket and froze there. Shizuko landed on a boulder as she assessed the damage. Clearly, this was something that she couldn't take lightly. Especially since even the atmosphere around them was starting to chill. Even Shadobisuto was feeling cold….

And she was also radiating energy.

Shizuko frowned. Now that she felt it, Shadobisuto was giving off some of the same energy as the dragon before her was.

She jumped out of the way again as the dragon charged at her. She landed on the ground as the energy in her Zanpakuto grew stronger.

_**You'll need to use it soon if you don't want to become a Popsicle.**_

What did she mean by that? Suddenly, her mind went blank.

Urahara was watching her carefully as she fought. First thing he noticed was that she was paying more attention to her Zanpakuto. The more she stared at the sword, the more blank her expression became.

Suddenly, she raised her Zanpakuto high, and he knew that she was acting more out of instinct now than actually knowing how to use her power. In a way, it reminded him of when he was training Ichigo, except her case was different. She already knew how to do this. She just needed to remember.

The rest of the shinigami stared with varying looks of awe and shock as the "human" made her move.

As the ice dragon made to charge her again, she waved her sword above her head and then part of the dragon had split off from the rest of the body. That chunk of the dragon turned into another dragon just like it.

Toshiro stared wide-eyed as his shikai was cloned and made to attack him. He jumped out of the way and watched as Shizuko took in her attack's appearance.

She blinked at the dragon she had made from the original. She couldn't remember how she did it. Her mind went blank right before she moved to attack. But, she noticed a few things upon seeing what she had somehow done.

One was that her dragon was distinctly smaller. She guessed it was about half of the original's size. It was clearly weaker than the original. The second was that the energy in her Zanpakuto was less intense.

"And that is Shadobisuto's power, in a nutshell." Shizuko turned around to see Urahara waving his fan in front of his face as he normally did. He continued his explanation as Hitsugaya made the dragon vanished. She made her dragon dissolve as well, listening in on what was being said.

"This shadow Zanpakuto is able to copy, or 'shadow', the attacks made by the opponent's reiastu. When unsheathed, the blade is continually sampling the reiastu the opponent gives off. Once the enemy shows how they use their reiastu in their attacks, Shadobisuto is able to mimic the attack. And, since the Zanpakuto absorbs reiastu, it can make the attack stronger by using the reiastu that originally made the attack. However, since the attacks are just mere shadows, there is no way that they'll be as strong as the original and Shadobisuto is limited to mimicking kido attacks. On the upside, once Shadobisuto learns an attack, it never forgets it."

Everyone stood silently as they began to understand what they had seen. At the very least, they saw why Hitsugaya had been chosen. He was one of the few whose Zanpakuto was able to help give a proper demonstration.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have one." Everyone turned to fix their gazes on Shizuko, who was frowning at Urahara.

"How the hell do you know so much about my own Zanpakuto? I didn't even know this much before you said anything. I didn't even know I was able to copy anyone else's attacks until now. So how do you know so much about this? Just who exactly are you?" She was frustrated. Yeah, she got that she wasn't exactly a human as she had claimed for as long as she did, and she also had at least one secret that she wasn't willing to tell, but this was just ticking her off now. First Shadobisuto wouldn't tell anything about her real power and now this man seemed to have endless knowledge of something that he shouldn't have known until she knew. Just who did she put her trust into?

Urahara could sense her frustration from where he stood. He could understand why, but there wasn't anything he could do to help. He tried, but he didn't succeed.

"All I can say is that your Zanpakuto's abilities aren't really a secret." She narrowed her eyes at him. He was hiding something. That much was obvious. But at the same time, she knew that he wasn't going to say any more than that. So, instead of continuing asking him questions that he wouldn't answer, she just sheathed Shadobisuto and walked off.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Toshiro spoke up.

"That seal must really be something if you can't do much about it." Urahara nodded, not liking how true that statement was.

….

"It happened about ten years after we escaped into the World of the Living." Everyone was listening intently to Yoruichi, wanting to know what had befallen their friend who they thought was dead but wasn't.

"Shizuko managed to find Kisuke, saying that she had been asleep during those ten years she'd disappeared for."

"Asleep?" asked Rose. Yoruichi nodded.

"That last mission she had been sent on was a set-up. Kaname attacked her on the way back when her guard was down. She lost the fight and even she thought that she was going to be killed right when she blacked out. But she ended up waking up in a room she didn't recognized. It turned out that Aizen had her hidden somewhere near the Sereitei and with her reiastu sealed off from the outside."

Everyone was silent as they absorbed what they were being told.

"She managed to escape to the World of the Living within a week of waking up. Neither Aizen nor Kaname had checked on her the entire time she was awake. The first thing she did was track down Kisuke here in town. He gave her a gigai and she told him about her capture and incarceration."

"Wait, how did she know where Kisuke was? She disappeared before we were forced out here," said Lisa.

Yoruichi was silent for a moment before continuing.

"Even now, there is one thing about Shizuko that I can't tell you about. All I can say is that she knew we were here."

It wasn't a satisfactory answer, but they knew that was the best they could hope for now.

"After she told us everything, she found a place to stay in a different town, but she still came by every once in a while."

"Why didn't she stay with Urahara? Since she's his sister, he would have opened up a room for her, wouldn't he?" asked Ichigo.

"Because she said that Aizen would be looking for her. So, instead of staying where most people would expect her to, she stayed somewhere else to stay hidden. While she was gone, Kisuke gave her something to do."

Shinji frowned a bit, waiting for her to continue.

"You remember that chain of fate that was attached to her chest when the arrancar forced her out of her body?"

Ichigo nodded.

"If she had a chain of fate, then wouldn't that mean that she was human?" asked Rose.

Yoruichi shook her head.

"What you saw wasn't a real one. It was a fake. Kisuke gave her some instructions to help create a seal in that form to bind someone to their gigai and seal away their reiastu. It was to prevent someone from using their shinigami powers."

Everyone's eyes widened.

"How would she know how to do that? She's not a scientist like her brother," said Love.

"No, but she spent plenty of time with us in the lab. _And_ Urahara is her brother. I'm pretty that she had picked up on some of our tricks while she was hanging out with him," answered Hiyori. Science might not have been Shizuko's forte, but Hiyori knew that she learned at least _some_ things from her brother.

Yoruichi nodded.

"So, she used herself as a guinea pig? But how did she lose her memory?" asked Shinji.

"That's the thing. She didn't experiment on herself. With the way it's designed, it takes one other person to plant the seal. She couldn't have done it by herself."

Everyone tensed.

"So that means…"Lisa trailed off.

"Someone had used the seal on her, preventing us from finding her and her from using her shinigami powers. At the same time, they had used a powerful kido to place a seal on her mind. The reason she can't remember any of us is because her memory is being blocked."

Silence followed. Nobody could believe any of this.

"Why?" Hiyori was the first one to break the silence.

"Why would Aizen do that to her? And don't say that it wasn't Aizen! Who else has been hounding her besides him?"

Yoruichi closed her eyes.

"It seems that Shizuko had some information related to Aizen. What that information was, I don't know. But, before she could say or do anything about the information, we believe that he found her. She was sealed away so that we couldn't find her. And her memory was blocked so that she couldn't remember what she knew or that we were here. The only good thing about this was that the seal she was working on wasn't perfected yet, so it had weakened with time, allowing her to be able to defend against hollows with what reiastu she could use. And now that that seal is destroyed, her reiastu has been steadily climbing back to what it originally was. That would be why her 'growth' seemed unprecedented. Because she was regaining the strength she lost."

Rose looked down in thought.

"So that explains how she easily reached shikai. But what about her memory? Isn't there anything Tessai can do to lift the seal?"

Yoruichi shook her head.

"That's what he's been trying to do. We've been looking into the seal while making her think that she's going through some kind of training. However, we've yet to find a way to break it without harming her."

"Harming her?" asked Shinji. Yoruichi nodded.

"You noticed that she's been frequently getting headaches, right? Whenever a memory tries to surface, the seal suddenly intensifies, preventing the memory from going to the front of her mind. But, when it intensifies, it causes her pain. We have to be careful when it comes to this seal, or we could cause even more damage."

Everyone was silent. They didn't know what to say now. Except for one person.

"So, basically, for the past century, Aizen has been torturing her in some way because she figured something out. And as a result, she ends up looking at everyone like they're strangers when, in reality, they're her friends and family. And if she's been trying to remember, all she gets from it is pain. She's been alone and wandering from town to town because all she knows is fear of the hollows who hunt her mercilessly and she didn't know that she had people she could turn to," Ichigo gritted his teeth, becoming angry with Aizen all over again.

"Well, I don't know anything about breaking seals, but I do know is that she doesn't have to keep running away anymore. She has us to turn to now. So she's not alone anymore. Let the arrancars come. We won't let them or Aizen torture her anymore!"

Nobody said anything in response to Ichigo's speech, but it did make them all feel better. Yoruichi smiled. Ichigo was right. So long as they were there, there was hope for their lost friend. Besides, maybe the seal would break once Aizen is defeated.

A person could always hope for some miracle.

**Okay, I'm hoping that this chapter was okay. I've been struggling lately.**

**And kitkat, here are your over-due responses:**

**When I said your guess was on the right track, I was talking about your guess that Shizuko didn't die but lost her memory. And no, Aizen is not in love with Shizuko. He has a different reason for going after her. Sorry if it seems like I'm ignoring you, but I'm not able to leave you PMs so this is the only way to communicate and, as you can see, I'm not organized enough to keep a consistent writing schedule. I'm sorry and I hope this doesn't put you off from reading the story.**

**I cannot guarantee as to how soon I can put out the next chapter. I will try to not make you guys wait too long as I know how much I hate to wait, but fact is I don't know when the next update will be.**

**So, I hope that you guys liked this chapter. It finally explains some things about what's happening and pretty soon we'll get some more action as well as another character.**

**So please review and tell me what you think. So good night!...or morning or whatever time you are reading this.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Sorry it's been taking me a while to get back. Writer's block sucks. But I've finally gotten past this part, so hopefully the rest of the plot will come a lot more easily to me. **

**Anyway, here you are.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Shizuko is mine.**

Chapter 23

"_I'm here to help you! You can't handle them by yourself!" That was the only thing she could hear clearly. Everything else was just a dull roar. Whether or not it was because it looked like it was raining in this blurred scene wasn't clear to her yet._

_The only thing she could make out clearly was a dark-colored figure standing before her with a spot of bright color where his head should be. She couldn't tell just what exactly was going on in this scene yet. All she knew was that one minute, the figure was standing tall before her. The next, it was falling down leaving a trail of scarlet in its wake._

Shizuko woke up in a cold sweat. She panted as she tried to slow down her racing heart. When she looked around, she saw that she was in her room at Urahara's. She tried to calm down, but her mind was already racing.

The vision was blurred, but she was afraid that she got the message. Someone was going to get hurt. Maybe even killed.

_**That has not been confirmed. Do not worry about what hasn't happened.**_

_But how?_

Shizuko always hated her visions. Ever since her powers first showed up, she had been getting visions of the future. While they didn't always have to do with death and battle, that seemed to be all she was seeing lately.

Before she came to Karakura Town, Shizuko had started seeing visions involving arrancars and the shinigami she knew now. Those battles had already passed, but for days, even weeks, the visions would come to her blurred and she couldn't do anything but wait for the visions to clear. And sometimes, over the years, they only became clear seconds before the event happened.

But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the feeling of sheer helplessness that came with knowing what was going to happen and knowing that she couldn't do anything about it.

She had tried changing the outcome of one vision before, but then the outcome was worse than what she saw. So now, she never knew if it would be better to interfere with the vision's outcome or not.

_**There is still time before the event comes to pass. For now, you need to push it away from your mind and not let it consume you.**_

_And how am I supposed to do that?_ Shizuko asked, frustrated. It was silent for a while, but she got an answer.

_**Why not pull some pranks on the shinigami?**_ Shizuko frowned.

_Pranks?_

_**Yes. Pranks. Think about it. Some of them seem short-tempered or a bit uptight. Don't they seem like they promise some interesting reactions if you were to, say, paint a bulls-eye on the bald shinigami's head and throw darts at him? Or you could do something to Renji, since he's always here. You would get a laugh out of it and it would kill any boredom you had.**_

Shizuko thought about the idea. The more she thought about it, the more appealing the idea was. In fact, thinking about the ways she could torture Renji made her feel more like . . . herself, if that made sense.

_Yes . . . in fact, I think I know just what to do before leaving today._

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Urahara eyed his sister as she quickly ate breakfast. It seemed that she was in some kind of hurry. At first, he thought that she was still angry about what happened after the sparring session yesterday, but she didn't look angry. In fact, it looked like she was anticipating something. He wondered what she was up to.

He got his answer just as she finished eating.

BANG!

He listened as Renji was screaming something after the explosion in his room. Shizuko smirked. It was a smirk he knew well. She was back to pranking people.

Shizuko looked up when Renji ran into the room, covered in green paint.

"Renji, what happened?" asked Urahara, despite the fact that he already knew.

"SOMEONE PUT A PAINT BOMB IN MY ROOM!" shouted Renji. Renji was sure that this was Urahara's doing. Nobody else here tried to screw with other people like that.

Shizuko frowned at him as she took in the green paint.

"You know, now that I see it, I'm not sure if green's really your color. Maybe I should have done blue . . ." she wondered out loud. Renji stared down at her, surprised.

"Wait? It was you?" he asked. Shizuko got up.

"Well, as much as I would love to stay and chat, I gotta go. Later." With that, she shunpoed out of the room and ran out of the shop.

Renji was angry, but he was also a bit confused. Why would she be pulling pranks now?

"Sorry Renji, I should have warned you." Renji turned to look at Urahara.

"My sister was notorious in the Seireitei as a prankster. Whenever she gets bored, she picks a victim to pull pranks on. And it looks like her victim of the day was you. Although, I have to disagree with her. You don't look that bad in green."

Renji finally understood. This was Urahara's sister. The fact that she liked to screw with people shouldn't be surprising at all.

"Well, you better wash that paint off before you start on your chores. You're also going to need to scrub the paint splatter in your room before it dries," said Urahara.

Great, she gave him more work to do.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shizuko was greeted on the steps leading to the warehouse basement by Mashiro, who came flying at her at top speed. The collision caused the two of them to tumble to rest of the way down the stairs. When Shizuko finally recovered enough to stand up, Mashiro put her in a bone-crushing hug. Seriously, she could hear some of her bones cracking.

"Mashiro . . ."

"Shizuko! We missed you soooooooo much! You've been gone for so long!" cried Mashiro as she was suffocating her best friend. Shizuko started to turn blue.

"Ma . . . shiro . . . can't breathe . . ." Mashiro, finally taking the hint, let Shizuko go. As Shizuko greedily sucked in much needed air, she thought about what Mashiro said.

"Wait. How could you miss me? I was only gone for the night," said Shizuko, confused. For some reason, Mashiro looked sad. Before she could ponder about this, Shinji walked up, looking as casual as ever.

"Eh, you know how Mashiro can be sometimes. A few hours can feel like an eternity to her," he said.

Shizuko decided to agree with that for now, but something didn't seem right.

"Shizuko, are you sure you should be training already?" asked Hachi, who was concerned for her well-being. Shizuko nodded.

"Yeah. I finally understand my Zanpakuto's true power," she said. As she remembered yesterday's sparring with Toshiro, she became angry again. If he knew all of that, did that mean that he knew her?

But, where did he know her from then?

"You okay?" asked Shinji when he noticed the change in her mood. Shizuko nodded, forcing herself to lighten up.

"Yeah. I'll just go ahead and start training," she said.

"I have a better idea!" said Mashiro. Shizuko stared at her, curious.

"We should go shopping!" Shizuko frowned at the idea.

"Shouldn't we be training to fight Aizen?"

"That can wait until later!"

"Mashiro, training comes first. The shopping can wait until later," said Kensei.

Shinji sighed. This was going to be difficult. Shizuko was Mashiro's best friend. Now that they knew that she was still alive and in front of them, they had to pretend that they didn't know her for her sake. As much as he also wanted to pick up where things had been left off like Mashiro, the seal had to be broken first to avoid harming her.

Mashiro pouted, but before she could throw a tantrum, Hachi intervene.

"Actually, Shizuko, I would like to do a check-up on your reiastu. I want to make sure that there hadn't been any disturbances after that shadow incident," he said. Shizuko sighed, but she consented. She knew that he just meant well.

Shinji watched as Shizuko sat cross-legged, going into a kind of meditative state as Hachi put a hand on her head. In truth, he was doing what he said, but he was also giving the seal placed on her a look.

It didn't take him long to find it. It was like a thick wall in her mind. Inside the wall were all of her memories. Very carefully, he tried to break that wall. However, as soon as he did, the seal intensified, blocking the intrusion. And that led to Shizuko suddenly clutching her head as she had a moment of pain.

"Are you okay?" asked Hachi. Shizuko nodded, trying to blink the spots out of her eyes.

"Yeah, just a headache. Sorry, were you not done?" she asked. Hachi understood that she did not associate the headache with him, but as a random occurrence. He nodded.

"Yes, I am done. You can go train now." She nodded and got up.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Shinji walked up to him.

"So, you find anything out about the seal?" asked Shinji. Hachi nodded.

"Yes. It is acting as an impenetrable wall, keeping her memories from leaking out. Whenever a breach of any kind occurs, it grows stronger. However, as you just saw, it has its consequences." Shinji thought for a moment.

"What if you do try to break the seal despite the pain it caused her? Is the headache the worst she would get and would it work?" he asked.

"I don't know. I could try, but I don't know if forcing my way through the seal will work. I also have no way of knowing the extent of the damage it would cause to Shizuko's mind. To be frank, I would want to avoid that method just to be safe," said Hachi. Shinji nodded. He was afraid of that, but there was nothing they could do about it now.

For now, she would just have to go without her memory. Maybe they could find a way to break it once Aizen was no longer an issue.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shizuko was sitting with the rest of the vizards while Hiyori was training Ichigo. She was taking a short break. While everyone was watching the two of them fight and talk with each other, she was deep in thought.

How did Urahara know about her Zanpakuto? She had been assured that he could be trusted, and she didn't doubt it at first, but now she realized that she really had no idea just who she had put her trust in. A major oversight in most cases.

But, maybe she had known him once before, and couldn't remember. She knew that she wasn't human considering that she hadn't age once during the past 40 years. And he wasn't human. So maybe she met him before and he remembered.

But then, why didn't he say anything when Ichigo brought her to him? Why did he pretend to not know her? There had to be a reason for him to be hiding the fact that he knew her before until he gave details of her Zanpakuto's abilities.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a familiar reiastu enter the warehouse. How did she get in here? Did that barrier keep nothing out?

Shizuko stood up as the rest of the vizards took notice of their guest. She turned to face the stairs and watched as Orihime walked down, who grew a bit nervous when she saw the group watching her.

"Uh . . . um . . . e-excuse me, where's the bathroom? Just kidding," said Orihime. Shizuko sweat dropped. She got that Orihime was nervous, but there was no need to attempt a joke.

"Oh! Shizuko! You're here, too?" asked Orihime upon recognizing her in the group. Shizuko was about to answer when Ichigo suddenly crashed near the stairs.

"Ichigo!" called out Orihime. Ichigo looked up when he was called, surprised to see Orihime there.

"I have something to tell you! Shizuko, you need to know, too!" said Orihime. Shizuko just nodded and followed Orihime as she walked over to Ichigo. Once they sat down, Orihime started to explain what the shinigami had discovered about Aizen's plans.

Once she was done, both Ichigo and Shizuko were silent. Shizuko didn't know what to think. She had been chased into a town that Aizen was planning to destroy from the beginning? Her hands tightened into fists. She couldn't allow this to happen!

Ichigo, while she had been fuming in silent rage, only said, "I see."

He turned his head when he noticed Orihime staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Oh . . . I mean, you don't seem very surprised by what I told you," she said. Shizuko was now watching Ichigo.

"Sure I am. It's just that . . . I just found out that Karakura's going to be wiped out because of this Oken thing, and I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around it. But it's okay. Don't worry. I'm gonna stop Aizen," he said confidently. He stood up.

Shizuko blinked, surprised about his confidence. Then she smiled as he went off to train with Hiyori. She needed to get stronger too so that Aizen wouldn't get the jump on her again.

She returned to the vizards, who were talking with each other.

"Who was that girl?" asked Kensei.

"She just spoke to Ichigo and Shizuko and ran away," said Lisa.

"It looked like they were friends," said Rose. Shizuko was about to speak up to answer their questions when Shinji spoke up.

"That was Orihime," he said.

"Huh? What? You know her?" asked Kensei, surprised.

"Orihime was . . . my first love," said Shinji. Shizuko mentally face palmed herself. She should have seen that response coming. Rolling her eyes, she set off to start training with Mashiro.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"See ya guys later!" Shizuko called out as she left the warehouse. Considering that she had nowhere else to go, she had to go back to Urahara's for the night. But she was determined to get some answers about this guy.

Shizuko eyed the sun. She still had a good two hours before it was dark. She had time to walk. With her Zanpakuto out of sight in her jacket, she made her way to the shop.

At least, she did in the beginning. She was walking by the park when she sensed someone else's presence. She didn't know who it was, so she kept her guard up as she continued walking.

She scanned the trees and bushes for any sign of someone when she saw a flash of silver. She blinked and took a closer look.

Before he disappeared out of her sight, she saw a man in white clothing with silver hair. And, as soon as she saw him, only one thought came to her mind.

_I know him!_

**Sorry about the long wait, again! I'm hoping that you guys are still sticking with this story after all this time. I cannot make any guarantees about when the next update will be, but I will try not to make you guys wait so long.**

**Please review and tell me what you guys think of this chapter.**

**Later!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Yes, I know it took me over a month to get back. But I have another update here, so I'm hoping that this makes up for the long wait. Especially since I left off at such a cliffhanger.**

**Anyway, without further ado . . .**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Shizuko is my OC.**

Chapter 24

Shizuko ran after the silver streak as he ran away. She ran through the bushes and trees and followed him deeper into the park.

She knew him from somewhere. That was the only thing she was certain of. She didn't know where, but how many people actually have silver hair? If she could just get close enough to see his face better and question him, maybe she could get some answers about her past.

_**Don't be so rash! You don't have any proof that you actually know him.**_

Shizuko frowned. She did not want to argue with her Zanpakuto about this. It was bad enough that she was getting a slight headache just from trying to think of how she knew the person.

_No. I do know him. That fact is buried somewhere deep in my mind. I know it. I have a feeling that he might be able to uncover some answers for me, like how Urahara knows me or who I was before 40 years ago._

_**How do you know it's not a trap? You went so long without your memory, and had accepted that you wouldn't get it back at one point. So why are you so concerned about it now? Is it just because of what Urahara said?**_

Shizuko continued to chase the familiar stranger with single-minded determination. She was silent for a moment before answering her Zanpakuto. Her headache still persisted.

_I did think that, for a long time, I would never get my memory back. And you're right. I accepted it without too much thought, seeing that no one was looking for me. I assumed that I never had anyone to begin with. No friends. No family. It didn't help when I saw that I wasn't human as time went on. I had no idea what I was, but I accepted it all the same._

_**So what's different now?**_

Shizuko gave her answer some thought before telling Shadobisuto. Although, she had a feeling that she knew what the answer was as well.

_What's different is this place. 40 years and I've never once stepped into Karakura before. 40 years that I've lived in ignorance about myself. Now that I came here, I saw that my powers are that of a shinigami. I've also gained control over them. I finally found out who you are and what you mean to me, as well as how to call on your power. All of this happened after meeting the vizards and Urahara. I'm starting to develop a theory for all of this. I just need to know a few more facts to confirm it._

Shadobisuto was silent for a moment. Right when Shizuko thought that she wasn't going to say anything, she made one last argument.

_**You never answered how you knew if this isn't a trap.**_

She didn't challenge Shizuko's observations, or even comment on them. That was enough to tell her that her Zanpakuto was agreeing with her.

_Just call it a hunch._

Shizuko didn't have a better rebuttal than that, even though it was true. She pressed on through the park.

It felt as though she had been chasing him for a long time, but in reality, it was only a few minutes.

He suddenly stopped in the middle of a clearing, his back to her. Shizuko stopped as well, wondering what he was up to. The light of the rapidly setting sun threw them into shadows, and it vaguely reminded her of her Inner World.

Then, he turned around.

The man's eyes were shut, but he had this smirk on his face. Apparently, he drew her out here on purpose, but Shizuko wasn't afraid. She was confident that this man wasn't going to hurt her.

"Nice to see you again, Shizuko. How long has it been? About 90 years, maybe?" he asked. Shizuko frowned. That added at least another 50 years to her life. Just how old was she?

"Who are you? And how do you know me?" she asked, calmly.

"It's such a shame that you don't have access to your memory. It must be frustrating to not remember who your friends are," he said as he started walking towards her. As she thought, he was a friend. But how did he know about her memory problems? She never even told the vizards or Urahara that.

"How do you . . ." He raised a hand up, interrupting her.

"Oh, I know more about the situation you're in than anyone else here. In fact, I know how to help you get back your memories," he said. Her eyes widened.

_**Be wary of his intentions. Remember when Aizen tried to offer you a deal that was too good to be true, **_warned Shadobisuto.

Shizuko only half-listened to the warning, though.

He stopped a few feet away from her, still wearing that smirk on his face.

"You don't have to worry about me harming you. After all, we all want you to be able to remember us."

"We?" asked Shizuko, not missing the word. Was he here with someone else? He nodded.

"Of course. All of your friends have missed you and are waiting for you to come back. And I'm sure that you would want to remember who your brother is."

Shizuko blinked. She had a brother? A brother who was still alive? But wait, if all of this was true . . .

"Why did nobody come find me, then? After all this time?" That was a question she had asked herself multiple times in the past when she found herself alone. She thought that she just didn't have anybody after several years of waiting. But now he was saying that they were all waiting for her.

"Well, you're a hard person to track down. We didn't know where to look. It didn't help that someone placed a seal on you, preventing you from using your full powers or us from finding you."

"A seal?" Shizuko frowned. She had a seal on her? But where? The man just laughed.

"Come on, now. You're a smart person. You should be able to figure things out from here." Shizuko remained silent. There was something nagging at her at the back of her mind. Something important and it had to do with the man in front of her. But what?

The man waved his hand at her.

"Oh well. It's not important since that seal is no longer in place. What's important now is getting your memory back. I know just who to go to for that," he said. Shizuko didn't move from her spot. She just continued to stare at this person. There was something she was on the verge of remembering about this person. It had something to do with . . . Aizen?

Suddenly, she closed her eyes and her hands flew up and clutched her head as pain ripped through it. Dammit! She didn't need this now! She squinted as she tried to keep her eye on the man before her.

There were just two problems. One, everything became blurry as the pain increased, so she could barely make out the figure before her.

The second, the figure before her was a small child with silver hair.

_What?_ She was incapable of coherent thought as another wave of pain hit her, causing her to go down on her knees and curl up, as though the position would protect her from the pain.

It felt like it was lasting forever. There was just no conceivable way for her to know how long she had been clutching her head, curled into a ball with her eyes closed. Finally, after who-knew- how long, the pain was slowly ebbing away.

Shizuko finally became aware of the fact that, at some point, she had fallen on her side while curled up. After a few moments when she was sure that the pain wouldn't come back, she slowly sat up, straightening herself out.

She saw that she was in the middle of the park and that the sun had finally gone down. And in front of her was a man with silver hair and white clothing. His eyes were closed and he was wearing a smirk on his face.

. . . Who was he? And why was she at the park at night?

"Who are you?" asked Shizuko, frowning when she got the feeling of déjà vu. The man said nothing. He just held out his hand to her.

"You already know my name. But I can help you remember it. You just need to come with me," he said. Shizuko blinked as she looked at the hand in front of her. Then she looked up at the man's face. Did she really know him from somewhere? Could he really help her?

Before she could think of accepting the hand offered to her, he jumped back as something blue suddenly shot up from the ground in between them. Shizuko jumped up, surprised and wary of what was going on. When she got a good look at the blue thing, it turned out to be a transparent, sapphire-blue wall that was a few inches thick. It was about 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide. The surface looked smooth, but the edges looked rough in some areas. If she had to guess, the wall was made out of crystal.

Shizuko suddenly heard someone walking up to her. She turned her head to see a shinigami.

She wasn't one of the shinigami who had questioned her. In fact, Shizuko had never seen her before. She had plain brown hair that only went down to her shoulder blades. Her bangs were cut evenly just above her eyebrows. She had emerald-green eyes that were focused on the man on the other side of the wall . . . and it looked like she wanted to kill him.

"Well, what do you know? You did survive our fight after all," said the man, amusement clear in his voice. The shinigami scowled at him.

"You're damn right I survived! Now it's time for a rematch!" said the shinigami, who was already crouching into a fighting stance with her Zanpakuto. The Zanpakuto, as Shizuko noticed, was just a katana . . . with an emerald-green blade and sapphire-blue hilt. It was also transparent, just like the wall between her and the man.

Before she could ponder some more about this strange sword, the man laughed.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have time to play with you today. I just came here to check on a friend," he said. The shinigami snarled. She apparently didn't like the put-down.

"You don't have any friends here! You're just trying to kidnap someone!" shouted the shinigami. Shizuko's eyes narrowed. Kidnap? Then he wasn't here to help her?

"Oh, now, don't be so mean," said the man. He started walking away, opening a black hole in the space in front of him. He looked over his shoulder at Shizuko, catching her eyes.

"You know for a fact that I wasn't lying when I said that I'm your friend," he said, sounding so sure of himself. The shinigami raced forward, intent on cutting him down. But he escaped through the hole, much to her displeasure.

She cursed under her breath, mad that her opponent had escaped. Her Zanpakuto glowed for a moment before returning back to its sealed state. The wall also shattered as she sheathed her sword, the pieces dissolving into the air. Then she looked at Shizuko.

"So, who the hell are you?" asked the shinigami. Shizuko frowned at her.

"I believe that's my line," she said. The shinigami was about to retort when they sensed several people with high reiastu coming towards them. They turned out to be the shinigami Shizuko did know.

"There you are!" shouted Renji as he touched down on the ground. Rukia was close behind him with Toshiro.

"We got worried when we sensed who was here, but it looks like he's gone," said Rukia. Ikkaku and Yumichika arrived just seconds after them, and they were the first ones to notice the newcomer.

"Toshi! What are you doing here?" asked Ikkaku. Toshi? Shizuko frowned as she thought as to where she heard the name before.

Toshi turned to face Ikkaku and Yumichika.

"I got here just around the time you guys started fighting that large group of hollows. I was going to join you when I sensed that Ichimaru was in the area and decided to track him down," she said nonchalantly.

"Well, it seems that you prevented Shizuko from being captured, so your timing was good," said Toshiro. Toshi took another look at Shizuko.

"Yeah, about that, who is she?" she asked, wanting an answer as to why her friends were defending someone she just thought was a random human in the area.

"She is Shizuko, and she requires our protection since Aizen has made it clear that he has been chasing her down with some of his arrancars," said Toshiro. Shizuko was starting to get annoyed that they were talking as though she wasn't there, but Renji had cut her off from making a retort.

"Wait a minute. Toshi, since you didn't know about Shizuko, why did you go track down Gin by yourself?" he asked, suspicious. Toshi just shrugged. That was when Shizuko remembered where she heard the name from. She had caught Renji texting her a while back.

"Knowing you, you probably went just to fight him again," said Ikkaku, who seemed to be giving her a somewhat stern look. They all remembered what happened the last time she fought against Gin.

"You remembered what happened the last time you fought him! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" asked Renji, who looked mad now. Toshi was getting mad herself.

"Well, excuse me if I noticed that none of you were . . ."

"Ahem!" interrupted Shizuko. All eyes were on her now, wondering what she wanted. Renji and Toshi still looked mad at each other, but they stopped fighting to find out why they were being interrupted.

"Would anyone mind telling me what was going on just now?" She was still trying to remember just what she was doing in the park at night.

"That man you saw was Gin Ichimaru. He works for Aizen. We don't doubt that he just tried to take you to Hueco Mundo when Toshiko showed up," said Rukia, one of the only calm people left.

Shizuko flinched as another headache came up, but this was a dull pain compared to the last one. However, her action didn't go unnoticed by the shinigami who knew the story now.

"And this is Toshiko Yamashita. She has a short temper, so be careful around her," said Ikkaku. Toshiko scowled at him, even though what he said was true.

"You better head back to Urahara's before any arrancars decide to show up," said Toshiro. Shizuko merely nodded. She didn't feel like being caught in a fight now. Everyone had split off to go to their separate temporary dwellings. Toshiko, being new and not having a place to stay, decided to see if there was any room left at Urahara's. So Shizuko was walking back to Urahara's with Renji and Toshiko, and she couldn't help but notice that the two still looked mad at each other. Renji because Toshiko was being reckless for going up against Gin again and Toshiko because she found Renji's scolding earlier annoying.

. . . It was going to get even louder at the candy shop, wasn't it?

**And I'll end it here. No cliffhanger this time, but I did introduce my new Bleach OC. I'm planning on her having her own story, which, if you couldn't guess, begins at an earlier arc. However, I want to try to finish this story or at least get several more chapters out of the way before I start posting it.**

**Anyway, please review and let me know what you think. The next chapter will be posted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Later!**


	25. Chapter 25

**. . . Yeah, I'm sort of beyond making excuses besides the fact that life got busy on me. I also don't really have anything to say before the chapter starts, so I'll just go ahead and end the AN here.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Shizuko and Toshiko are my OCs.**

Chapter 25

"You know, I'm perfectly capable of going there myself," said Shizuko as she made her daily walk towards the warehouse. Toshiko shrugged.

"Sorry, even though I'm not from his division, I still have to follow Hitsugaya-taicho's orders. Besides, I'm only here as a precaution. I'm not going to be a pain in the ass when it comes to weak hollows or arrancars, if you can handle it," she said. In truth, Toshiko was only there because nobody wanted Shizuko to walk alone after the Ichimaru incident and Toshiko, having no other job since she just got there, was assigned as the escort.

With Renji training Chad at the shop, Rukia and Orihime leaving that morning to train in Soul Society, and Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Rangiku all patrolling around, it wasn't like Toshiko had anyone to hang out with, anyway. And while she did appreciate Shizuko rigging the shower to spray something called "Kool-Aid" (she had stopped Toshiko from going to the bathroom since she didn't want to pull a prank on the newest person . . . yet), which really got Renji (the victim) mad, she still didn't understand why Aizen was after this person. Nobody had yet to explain that beyond the fact that she seemed to have what Aizen wants.

Toshiko didn't see what Aizen would want, since Shizuko appeared to be a substitute shinigami in training. She was the same as Ichigo, wasn't she?

Oh well, in the end, it didn't matter. So long as Shizuko stayed out of Hueco Mundo, Toshiko could claim that her mission was successful. Besides, everything was going to be explained eventually. For now, she just had to protect Shizuko from arrancar attacks.

Shizuko knew better than to think that she could get Toshiko to leave her be, but she wasn't sure if she was supposed to let a shinigami follow her all the way to the warehouse. Nobody ever said anything about their relations with anyone from Soul Society, but she couldn't help but think that there was a chance things could go sour if the vizards met with Toshiko, especially given Toshiko's temper last night.

But for now, since they were still quite a ways from the warehouse, she might as well try to get to know Toshiko, if only to kill time and distract herself.

"What division are you from?" she asked. Toshiko frowned, finding the question a bit random, but decided to answer anyway.

"I'm from the 11th division, like Ikkaku and Yumichika."

"You must be strong, then," said Shizuko. Toshiko nodded.

"Yep. I have to be, since I'm the 4th seat." Shizuko's eyes widened a bit in surprise.

"Scratch that, you must be _really_ strong, since that division is focused on fighting," she commented. Toshiko nodded. The others must have told her about Soul Society for her to know this stuff.

"Yeah. It can be a pain, having to deal with so many idiots, especially if they forget how I got to my position, but I can handle it," said Toshiko nonchalantly. Shizuko then eyed the Zanpakuto at her waist. Toshiko didn't have a gigai yet, so she was walking around, invisible to the rest of the world. Shizuko was thinking back to last night.

"But, from what I saw, isn't your Zanpakuto a kido type?" Toshiko froze at the question and stared at Shizuko, who stopped walking as well. Toshiko's eyes narrowed.

"You are _not_ to discuss that with _anyone_. Got it?" she said, coldly. Shizuko nodded, seeing that she had hit a nerve. So talking about her Zanpakuto was taboo. That must mean that she wanted to stay in the 11th division, since everyone in the 11th division would only use physical attacks in their –

Shizuko flinched as she felt another headache coming. Toshiko noticed this.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, not really out of concern. She just wanted to shift the conversation onto another topic.

"Nothing. Just a headache." That was starting to become a frequent phrase of hers. Toshiko shrugged it off, since it was nothing serious.

"So, where are we going, anyway? I've been told that you would go somewhere for a whole day, even though you need to train," said Toshiko.

"I am training. Just not with Urahara," clarified Shizuko.

"Why do you need to go all the way out here for training? Who are you meeting?" asked Toshiko, not understanding any of the other woman's actions.

"I'm meeting people who've been helping me," said Shizuko as they drew closer to the warehouse the vizards resided in.

"And these people live in a warehouse with that strong barrier protecting," stated Toshiko, seeing why the others had trouble finding her whenever she would run off like this. Shizuko nodded.

"Don't worry. These people can be trusted. However, I'm not sure if they would like me bringing in a stranger . . ." Toshiko walked off, taking the hint.

"I'm not going in with you, since the fact that you've been able to come back every day so far is proof that whoever is in there isn't planning on harming you now. However, I'm supposed to be your escort, so I'll wait out here until you come out." Toshiko's tone left no room for argument.

_**Sounds like someone takes her job somewhat seriously.**_

_Either that or she just doesn't want to be around Renji at the moment._ Shizuko still remembered the tension between the two yesterday. She was still debating whether or not to ask about that, even though it could be a private matter that she should avoid.

Shizuko was still thinking this as she walked through the barrier and into the warehouse. Maybe she should give the issue a wide berth for now, and if it persisted, pester Toshiko about it. After all, Toshiko would probably be compliant about telling her if she was pranked enough. She smiled evilly as she thought of all the things she could do to her new roommate (since there were no more spare rooms for Toshiko).

"Shizuko!" She looked up to see that she was halfway down the stairs and that Mashiro was waving up at her. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, the rant came.

"Are you okay? We sensed Ichimaru coming after you last night and got worried. We had to restrain Ichigo and we were about to come out when we sensed one of the shinigami helping you. But then Ichimaru left for some reason. He didn't try to take you to Hueco Mundo, did he? Do you need an e-"

"Mashiro!" She stopped talking once Shizuko raised a hand and said her name.

"I'm okay. I didn't exactly get what happened last night, since I couldn't remember at what point I went to the park or why I was out so late, but a shinigami did help me and he did go away. But he didn't try to take me by force, so I don't get why he was there." Shizuko frowned. Just what did that guy want? And what did he mean when he said he was a friend?

"So I'm guessing the shinigami outside is an escort the others assigned to you as a precaution against another incident like that," said Shinji as he made his way over. Shizuko nodded.

"Yeah, I didn't know how you guys would feel about me bringing someone here, but nobody wanted me to be out by myself after last night. She did decide to respect your privacy and wait outside," explained Shizuko, who remembered that she didn't know their policy on outsiders (well, technically she was one, since she wasn't a vizard).

Shinji just shrugged.

"I understand the precaution, so I won't mind her just hanging around outside. Besides, it's not like she can get inside without our permission anyway," he said, referring to the barrier, "Now, you said that you didn't remember how you got to the park last night?"

Shizuko nodded.

"What was the last thing you remembered?" he asked. She frowned and looked down as she thought back to when she left.

". . . I was leaving the warehouse and got as far as fifty feet away when, the next thing I knew, I was lying in the park with a headache and a man with silver hair standing next to me." Shinji frowned.

"How bad was the headache?" he asked.

"It felt like my head was about to explode. I think I remember knowing nothing but that pain for a long while before becoming aware in the park," she explained. Shinji nodded.

"And you're ok now?" She nodded.

"Hey Shizuko! You can spare with me today," said Mashiro, who saw that Ichigo and Hiyori were currently in a heated battle and that it wasn't going to end soon. Shizuko nodded and walked off with her. Shinji had let her go and, instead, walked over to Hachi, who had been sitting within earshot of the conversation.

"What do you think?" Shinji asked.

"It sounds like she went through a regular trauma. While we do know that she had chased Ichimaru into the park on her own, she can't seem to remember doing that. He must have almost forced a memory to surface, which caused her enough pain that, as a defense mechanism, her brain made her forget the incident that involved the seal and everything that lead up to it. However, it does confirm what I fear about trying to break the seal with force," said Hachi. Shinji nodded.

"That's what I thought." He looked over to where he saw Shizuko and Mashiro spare. She didn't look like she was really affected by what happened. She looked the same as always.

Suddenly, he felt a surge of reiastu. The reiastu of a hollow. He looked over at Mashiro to see that she had her mask on. Not good.

"Mashiro! What are you doing?" The commotion, of course, caught everyone's attention. However, it didn't stop the sparring session.

"She asked for it!" replied Mashiro as she fired a cero at the amnesiac shinigami. Shizuko jumped out of the way, only to have to block a kick to her side. She was now fast enough to defend against Mashiro with her mask, but she could hardly find room to go on the offensive.

"What could she have possibly done to make you mad?" asked Lisa, who'd put down her book in favor of watching this incident.

"She didn't make me mad!" said Mashiro as Shizuko dodged another kick to her head, "She asked to spar with me with my mask on!" Now this took everyone by surprise.

"Shizuko! Why would you do that? You're not ready!" shouted Shinji.

"I'm testing something!" yelled Shizuko as she monitored her Zanpakuto during the fight. She was starting to take a beating at this point, but she was prepared for that. There was something she wanted to confirm from this fight.

_**Shizuko . . .**_

The warning came seconds before the same black aura from the last time surrounded the sword. Mashiro backed off from the fight and took her mask off when she saw it.

"Shizuko!" Shizuko ignored the cry as she focused on concentrating the energy. She held Shadobisuto horizontal in front of her with the blade facing away from her. The black energy then started to form a sphere in front of the blade. Shizuko focused on controlling the overflowing energy as it turned from black to blue.

Then, in one slashing motion, she commenced the attack.

"Cero!" Mashiro jumped out of the way as the cero left a path of destruction. A few boulders got destroyed, but no one got hurt. Shizuko also noticed that, now that she fired the attack, the energy in the sword was less concentrated and wasn't threatening to overwhelm her. Once the dust cleared, Shinji looked at Shizuko.

"How did you do that?" he asked, having an idea as to what happened. Shizuko stared down at her sword, which was now calm and lacking a black aura surrounding it.

"Shadobisuto continually takes in the reiastu of the enemy in order to see how it is manipulated for certain attacks so that she can copy it. I was testing a theory I had about being able to mimic a hollow's attack, like the cero. It would be better if I remembered this from the get-go, but . . ." Shizuko trailed off as she realized what she said. Shinji frowned.

"What is it?" he asked. Shizuko looked up at him from her Zanpakuto, wondering how to explain it. She had never once told them that she wasn't human, or that she couldn't remember much of her life. And now she had let something like that slip. These people were too smart. She knew that they would realize the slip-up soon.

_**You can always be honest with them. I remember telling you that you have nothing to fear from them.**_

Right. She did say that before. However . . .

"Shizuko, what is it? What do you mean by remember?" Shinji had already caught it. There was almost no turning back now. She sighed as she finally decided on a course of action.

"Well, it's a somewhat long story." She might as well tell them. Shinji, seeing where this was going, walked over to the side to take a seat.

"If that's the case, then why don't you make yourself comfortable," he suggested. She nodded as she sheathed her sword.

Five minutes later found not only her sitting with her back against a boulder across from Shinji and next to Mashiro, but everyone else seemed interested in what she had to say as they were now part of a rough circle, looking at her expectantly. Even Ichigo and Hiyori were taking a break to hear this.

Yeah, no pressure. Shizuko cleared her throat.

"Well, I guess I should start by apologizing. While I don't think I said anything about it, I went and let you guys assume that I was a human."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Hachi. Everyone knew what she was trying to tell them now, thanks to Yoruichi, but they couldn't let Shizuko know this. They needed her to keep trusting them. So they would play dumb for now.

"Basically, I'm not human," she said bluntly.

"Then what are you?" asked Rose. Shizuko shrugged.

"I don't know. I can't remember."

"Then how do you know you're not human?" asked Lisa.

"Well, from what I saw, humans don't go 40 years without aging. So that was kind of a hint for me there," she said dryly. Everyone had sweat-dropped at her response.

"Do you know why you can't remember?" asked Shinji, moving things along. Shizuko shook her head.

"No. I just woke up in an alley one day. I had no idea how I got there or why I was there. In fact, I couldn't even remember my name," she explained.

"Wait, then where did you get your name from?" asked Love. Her explanation didn't add up.

"That was where Shadobisuto came in." When no one said anything and just frowned at her, Shizuko sighed.

"I said before that I had been hearing her voice before I was able to call on her. I first heard her voice shortly after I woke up." Shinji frowned.

"What did she say?" he asked.

"She asked me if I was ok. When I couldn't remember anything about her, she had assured me that she was my friend. She even told me her name and my name, so that I would know how to address myself. It was actually through her advice that I knew where I lived at the time and how to avoid the hollows I eventually started to see." Shizuko's gaze took on a faraway look as she thought about how her Zanpakuto had been helping her all these years.

"And that's how you lived for 40 years?" asked Mashiro. Shizuko nodded. Shadobisuto was right. They were being more understanding about this than she had assumed. Maybe nothing surprised the shinigami and vizards anymore.

"I have one question. Are you able to manifest your Zanpakuto's form?" asked Shinji. Shizuko frowned at the random question.

"I haven't tried. Why do you ask?" Shinji shrugged.

"I was just wondering. I also wanted to talk to Shadobisuto for a bit," he said. Shizuko studied him for a moment, wondering what he wanted.

". . . Well, I would require some training, but I guess I can try," she finally said. Shinji nodded.

"No need to rush. After all, you still need to build up your strength to fight off the arrancars by yourself," he said. Shizuko nodded, but she still watched him carefully. Finally, Love and Rose stood up.

"Well, it's our turn to go get lunch," said Rose. As they left, Ichigo, Hiyori, Shizuko, and Mashiro continued with their training. While they were busy, Shinji, Hachi, Lisa, and Kensei gathered. Three of them were staring at one.

"Okay, Shinji, talk. Why do you want to talk to her Zanpakuto?" asked Lisa. Shinji looked over at the two sparring groups to make sure that they were too busy to notice them. When he was satisfied, he answered the question.

"Because it's clear that the seal had no effect on her Zanpakuto whatsoever. It remembers everything, and from what I can tell, it hasn't done anything to try to restore Shizuko's memory. I want to know why."

**What a twist! Shizuko finally speaks the truth, only to reveal a sword's secret without realizing it! What will happen from here? Find out next time!**

**In the meantime, please leave a review and tell me what you think of the story so far. It helps. **

**Later!**


	26. Chapter 26

**And I'm back! I don't have much to say before the chapter starts, so here's the disclaimer.**

**Also, finalfan: Aizen won't be making any appearances in the World of the Living until the fight, so no. As for the vizards, that will be revealed later.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Shizuko and Toshiko are my OCs.**

Chapter 26

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Both Shizuko and Toshiko cracked up over their breakfast when Ikkaku and Yumichika walked in. Shizuko was going to pull a prank on Ikkaku today if she saw him, but clearly, someone had beaten her to the punch. And she didn't mind.

"SHUT UP!" shouted Ikkaku, clearly furious at the girls' reaction.

"Oh God! Ikkaku . . . that shirt . . ." said Shizuko in-between laughs.

"I swear . . . you're trying to kill me!" laughed Toshiko. For some unfathomable reason, Ikkaku was wearing a very frilly, pink shirt. Yumichika was also laughing, but he wasn't in Ikkaku's line of sight, so he was in the least amount of danger.

"Toshi . . ." growled Ikkaku. She didn't heed the warning.

"Hey . . . look at it this way. At least you have something to match your eyeliner now," she snickered. And that was the last straw. Ikkaku grabbed her by her throat and started to strangle her.

"Ack! You trying to kill me?" she choked out as she started to fight against Ikkaku.

"Yes! In fact, I am!" he snapped back as they started to exchange punches now. Shizuko continued to eat as she watched the fight.

Toshiko had been there for over a week now, but since Shizuko was gone most of the time, she didn't get to see Toshiko interact with anyone besides Renji.

"Do they always act like this?" she asked Yumichika, who sat next to her. He nodded.

"It's not really a pretty sight, but there's no stopping the two from fighting anyone, even each other," he said. The fight went on for a few seconds until Tessai appeared out of nowhere behind the two.

"I suggest that, if you two are going to get rough, to take it out of the shop. We wouldn't want anything to get broken," he said. Taking the hint (threat), Ikkaku and Toshiko stopped fighting.

"Your breakfast is getting cold, anyway," said Shizuko, trying to distract Toshiko. It worked, and the woman seemed calm now.

"Toshi, do you always have to be so loud in the morning?" asked Renji, who was now walking in. Toshiko frowned at him.

"I don't see a reason to be quiet since everyone is supposed to be awake, anyway. Not my fault if you're lazy," she said. Ikkaku and Yumichika both gave her a flat stare.

"You're the last person we want to hear that from," said Ikkaku. Toshiko growled at him. Shizuko watched on with interest. She had realized earlier in the week that, despite the fact that she was supposed to be on the same side as them, she knew almost nothing about the shinigami. She knew what divisions they were from and their ranks, but nothing about them in general. She could only sit on the sidelines and watch as the apparent long-time friends (?) laughed and fought with each other. It was the same thing with the vizards. She went to train with them every day, and while she was getting the hang of their personalities, she didn't know much about them. Not their past, what powers they had, or even how they became vizards in the first place.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Renji. That was when Shizuko realized that she had spaced out on them all.

"Yes. I'm fine," she said. No need to make them worried. Although it was too late for Renji. After being subjected to a number of pranks for the past week, he became very wary of her actions before she would leave.

Toshiko then got up.

"In that case, are you prepared to leave yet? Or are you staying here today?" she asked. Shizuko recognized her cue and smirked.

"Yeah, I need to get going. Later!" she said to everyone. She and Toshiko were almost out the door . . . when they both turned around and each threw a suction cup dart at Ikkaku's head.

"What the hell?" he turned around after feeling the darts hit his head. That move revealed to everyone else a red target that had been painted on his head. Both of the darts were pretty close to the center as well. The girls ran out laughing.

"Oh man! He's going to kill us for that later!" laughed Toshiko.

"Yeah! But did you see his face!" said Shizuko, who was having a hard time breathing between running and laughing.

"Yeah! That was so worth it! I'm glad you asked for my help on that one."

"Why haven't you tried doing this before?" asked Shizuko, now that they were calming down. They had slowed to a walk way after the shop left their sight. Toshiko shrugged.

"Eh, I'm not the pranking type. If I was bored or had something against someone, I would fight them and send them bleeding and unconsciousness to the 4th division." Shizuko sweat dropped.

"Is it necessary to be so violent?" she asked.

"Meh, so I'm annoyed a bit more easily than you are. It never mattered to me before when no one cared, so I didn't hold back when I was mad." Shizuko frowned. What did Toshiko mean that nobody cared?

"So of course I kept that habit after I met up with some people and became a shinigami," continued Toshiko, still in that nonchalant tone of hers. Shizuko observed the shinigami carefully. She was now in a gigai, dressed in black pants, black flats, and a forest green blouse. Her expression almost looked bored.

Whatever it was she was talking about, she appeared to be over it. Shizuko tilted her head in thought.

"I see." And Shizuko was sure that she did. This was a topic that didn't require further discussion.

"So, do you have any suggestions for a prank for Yumichika, or should I come up with something?" asked Shizuko. Toshiko smirked.

"I'll let you surprise me, although I should warn you not to shave his head or anything. I want a good laugh, not to have him out for my blood," she said.

"And that's not going to happen with Ikkaku once we get back?" asked Shizuko skeptically.

"That marker will wash off. A bald head would last too damn long for him to remember the grudge he will have against me for that," pointed out Toshiko.

"Good point." The rest of their walk continued in silence as Shizuko contemplated more prank ideas.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shizuko ran off with her plate of barbeque as everyone else clustered around the food. She wanted to get out of there before people started to shove each other out of the way for their share. Once she was out of harm's way and eating her food off to the side, she started to watch everyone interact with each other. Rose and Love were arguing about a manga. Hiyori, Ichigo, and Shinji were all getting into a fight. Mashiro was whining to Kensei about something. Lisa was talking with Hachi about something calmly.

She just couldn't get it out of her head. The fact that she knew almost nothing about them. The fact that she was a stranger here. It was moments like this she hated because they were always accompanied by a sense of solitude. As far as she knew, she was only there until the war with Aizen was over. After that, she was most likely going to be wandering aimlessly through Japan again. She suddenly lost her appetite as a pang of longing struck her.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Ichigo. She had no idea when he sat next to her. She really needed to stop spacing out like that.

"I'm fine. Just a bit tired." He didn't look overly convinced.

"If you say so. How are things at Urahara's?" he asked. Shizuko had been occasionally filling him in on what would happen whenever she was there, so he already knew that Toshiko was in town.

"Fine. Toshiko is still getting into fights with Renji. And she got into one with Ikkaku after pulling a prank on him," she said.

"I didn't think Toshiko pulled pranks on people," he said surprised.

"Well, it was my idea and she helped. We're both probably going to hear about it once we get back," she said.

"Now that makes sense," he muttered. Ichigo had been the victim of more than one prank while Shizuko came over. One time she'd put hot sauce in his food. Another time she had set off a time bomb filled with sneezing powder. Everyone seemed more relaxed about her behavior since it seemed she was a prankster when she had her memory, but that didn't stop some of them from getting irritated. They were still preparing for a war, after all.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Haven't I always been innocent?" she asked, smirking. She knew what he was talking about. She just wanted to have some fun with this. However, the fun was cut short as she looked down at her food and adopted a faraway look on her face.

_It was dark and raining. The occasional flash of lightening illuminated the landscape further, revealing it to be a park in Karakura. One that she had seen before. She was in pain. Shadobisuto was unsheathed and dripping in blood. In front of her was what she recognized as an arrancar._

_He had bluish hair and his mask covered part of his lower jaw. He was covered in a few injuries, but he still had power to spare. She, on the other hand, was exhausted. She panted heavily as she kept a shaky grip on her Zanpakuto._

_Suddenly, he drew his fist back and rushed in on her . . ._

"Shizuko!" Ichigo grabbed her shoulder when she became unresponsive. She snapped out of the vision. Shizuko blinked a few times as she looked around to see looks of concern aimed at her.

"What's going on? Something is up," said Ichigo. Something had seemed off about her. While she would space out occasionally, she would typically respond when she heard her name the first time. He had been trying to get her attention for the past few minutes. He was about to shake her when she snapped out of her trance.

She looked up at him, thinking. Finally, she sighed.

"Okay, you caught me," she said, defeated. He frowned, wondering what she meant. Suddenly, she pulled out a small bag and slammed it against his head. Upon impact, the bag exploded, spreading pink dust everywhere. He coughed as it cleared.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, bewildered. She smirked up at him.

"That was my prank. I was trying to figure out a way to not get caught in it when you interrupted me, but you gave me little choice if I wanted to pull it off today," she said. It was then that Ichigo noticed that her right side was covered in pink dust. When he looked down at himself, he saw that he was _completely_ covered in the dust. What was worse: it wouldn't simply brush off.

"Is this really the time for pranks, Shizuko? You need to focus more on training," said Kensei, annoyed about her old pranking habit. She waved her hands in an apologetic manner.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it." Mentally, she was giving a sigh of relief. Nobody seemed to suspect anything else after her prank. However, that didn't change the fact that she was going to be attacked in the future. She had no idea when. Her only clue was the rain. Kensei was right. She needed to stop focusing on pranks and more on her training. However, she needed something to distract not only them, but herself from the dread of the imminent future. She couldn't afford to worry too much about what had yet to happen.

She started to think about what Toshiko was doing at the moment. Surely the shinigami must be doing something during their time here to kill the boredom. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Shizuko was mildly surprised when she got a clear vision of Toshiko laying on a nearby rooftop, taking a nap. Maybe Ikkaku was right when he accused Toshiko of being lazy earlier. It would be funny if this was actually happening right now. Then, a cold chill ran down her spine. She wondered why as she widened the scope of her view of the building Toshiko was on.

There were a dozen hollows closing in on her. She wasn't making a move to defend herself. Was she not aware? Before Shizuko could think through about what she saw, she jumped up and used shunpo to get up the stairs and out the door, ignoring everyone calling out to her.

Once outside, Shizuko saw the building immediately. The hollows she saw in her head had advanced from their position since and were clearly aiming for the sleeping shinigami. Not wasting any time, Shizuko jumped up into the air until she could see the rooftop. From there, she saw a centipede-like hollow getting ready to strike Toshiko.

"TOSHI!" Shizuko shouted as she rushed in and drew her Zanpakuto. Toshiko snapped her eyes open just in time to see Shizuko slice through a hollow's head, making it vanish. Toshiko jumped up and swallowed her candy. She jumped out of her gigai and drew her sword. Between the two of them, they made short work of the hollows surrounding them.

As the last hollow vanished, they both stood still back-to-back on the roof. They listened carefully for any more enemies, but when no more came, they relaxed.

"Thanks for that," said Toshiko as she got back into her gigai.

"No problem."

"Shizuko!" They looked up to see Shinji and Mashiro coming towards them. When Toshiko tensed again, Shizuko waved her hands at her.

"Don't worry! They're friends." Toshiko relaxed only a little, but she kept her eye on the vizards. She had no idea who they were, and she had no intention of fully trusting them yet.

"Why did you run off like that?" asked Mashiro.

"There were a bunch of hollows here. I needed to help Toshi," she explained. Shinji and Toshiko had something of a stare down for a moment, sizing each other up. Shizuko was about to say something when Shinji turned around.

"I see. In that case, with the danger now gone, let's go back inside to train," he said. Shizuko frowned. Something was up with him, but she couldn't figure out what.

"Go ahead, Shizuko. I'll be fine now. But can you promise not to tell the guys about this? I'll _never_ hear the end of it from them if they find out," said Toshiko.

"You mean Renji?" asked Shizuko, acting on a hunch. Toshiko glared at the ground at the mention of his name.

"_Especially_ Renji! That guy thinks that I can't take care of myself enough as it is! And he can be such an ass about it!" she said angrily. Shizuko remembered the fight they had when Toshiko first showed up. Maybe she should try asking Renji about Toshiko later. But for now, she needed to get back inside.

"Okay. I promise." With that, she left with the vizards.

After they got inside, Shinji looked over at Shizuko.

"Why did you go out to assist her? A shinigami of that caliber should be able to handle hollows by herself," he said. She frowned, wondering where he was going with this.

"I just felt the need to help her. Is there a problem with that?" she asked, not planning to mention that she had more or less seen that she needed help.

"Well, you did jump right in without thinking the situation through," he said. That comment stung.

"Are you saying that I can't handle fighting hollows?" she asked. They were going down the stairs at this point.

"I'm saying that you didn't take the time to gauge the enemies' strength before running in to fight them," he accused. Mashiro looked between the two, at a loss of what to do as a fight began to brew.

"There wasn't any time to think! She needed help, so I jumped in. The hollows weren't even that strong, anyway. I knew that I was more than capable of taking them."

"But what if there had been arrancars? You're not a very careful person, and you're not always going to have someone to bail you out of trouble when it becomes too much," he pointed out. Shizuko stopped in her tracks at the bottom of the stairs.

"I _am_ a careful person! I was going to be fine, and I wasn't asking to be bailed out. I think you worry too much," she said, suddenly irritated.

"We are about to go to war here and the enemy has been actively hunting you down! You can't just take off on your own like that," he said. She needed to understand that she couldn't afford to take risks in her position. She was still recovering and had yet to regain her ability to use bankai. Why was she always so reckless?

"Even if I am with other people, that risk is still there! And the hollows are out to get everyone, not just me! I'll admit that I didn't put too much thought into my actions today, but everything turned out okay. All I ask is that you trust me a little more!" she shouted. They had everyone's attention at that point, and just in time for them to see her clutch her head as a stabbing pain blossomed.

"Are you okay?" asked Mashiro. Shizuko nodded.

"Y-Yeah . . . I'm fine. I just need a few minutes," she said. Shinji watched with wide eyes, worried about his former 4th seat.

"Oh, I just remembered," said Shizuko as she walked away. She pulled out her sword and held it in front of her. She said nothing as she focused and her shadow under her started to morph. The shadow then came up from the ground in a three-dimensional form. After a moment of morphing, the shadow took on the shape of a pitch black wolf with deep, blue eyes.

"You wanted to talk to her right?" asked Shizuko, still irritated at Shinji despite the distracting headache. Before Shinji could respond, she walked away. She could hear about the conversation from Shadobisuto later. Right now, she just wanted to sit down somewhere quiet.

The wolf sat down in front of Shinji and looked up at him with knowing eyes.

"**So, I've heard that you have a bone to pick with me?"**

**And that's all for now. I'm hoping the longer than usual chapter makes up for the wait. We're getting closer to seeing more action in the story, and hopefully I'll start posting Toshiko's story soon. In the meantime, please review and tell me what you think about the story so far. I'll update as soon as I can.**

**Later!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Clearly, I am horrible about keeping track of time. Sorry for the long wait. On the upside, this chapter is pretty informative about Shizuko's Zanpakuto.**

**Anyway, here you go.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Shizuko and Toshiko are my OCs.**

Chapter 27

"So Shizuko's Zanpakuto is a wolf?" asked Ichigo as he observed the being in question. Everyone gathered shortly after Shizuko and Shinji's fight, wondering what was going on. Mashiro was going to keep Shizuko company, but she insisted that she wanted to be alone at the moment. So now she was going to listen to what the Zanpakuto had to say, a bit put out.

"**No. I am a shadow,**" said Shadobisuto.

"You look like a wolf," said Hiyori. Shadobisuto then morphed her form into that of a hawk that was as big as Hiyori.

"**I can change my form into anything I want.**" She then morphed into a panther, then into an Ichigo look-a-like. Finally, she morphed back into a wolf.

"**I just prefer this form more than others. Now, you have something you wanted to say to me?**" she asked Shinji, directing her blue eyes, her only distinctive feature besides her outline, at him. Shinji nodded.

"You still have your memory. That seal had no effect on you," he stated. She nodded.

"**I see you're still as perceptive as ever, Hirako-taicho.**" Shinji said nothing at the mention of his old title.

"**However, that isn't going to be enough. It wasn't enough to stop Aizen 100 years ago, and it isn't going to do much now,**" she said in a matter-of-fact tone. Everyone tensed.

"Are you saying this was all Shinji's fault?" asked Lisa. The Shadow Beast spared her a glance.

"**I did not say that. I'm just stating a fact.**" Shadobisuto hardly seemed to notice all of the glares she was receiving from almost everyone in the group.

"I know that Shizuko's current situation is my fault for not stopping Aizen so long ago. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, but . . ." started Shinji.

"**Don't flatter yourself.**" He looked at the wolf with wide eyes.

"What?"

"**Aizen had everyone fooled, and even you had suspicions about him at most. Only special circumstances made Shizuko know that he was up to something as well. But by the time any evidence of his activities came up, the damage was already done. So don't think that just because you didn't do something is what helped Aizen get away with what he did.**" Everyone was silent for a few moments. It was easy for the Zanpakuto to say that there wasn't much that could have been done to stop Aizen back then, but hindsight kept telling them there were some things that they could have done differently. Such as Hiyori stopping Shizuko from going on that last mission.

"**Now, I believe you wanted to discuss the seal on Shizuko's memory with me,**" she said, wanting to get to the point.

"Yes. You still remember everything Shizuko doesn't, including what happened 40 years ago," said Hachi. The wolf nodded.

"You wouldn't happen to know more about the seal placed on Shizuko so that we can figure out how to break it, then?" asked Hachi. They stared at each other for a moment before she answered.

"**I have seen the seal being placed, and I have an idea as to how it functions . . .**" Everyone waited with anticipation. It sounded like they could finally get their friend back.

"**. . . But, I won't tell you what I know.**" And in that instant, their hope was crushed.

"What do you mean that you won't tell us? Don't you want her to remember how to use bankai? Don't you want her to know how to defend herself against the arrancars?" asked Shinji, confused and frustrated at the uncooperative Zanpakuto. Shadobisuto growled at him.

"**That's why she's going through training all over again. So that she can relearn it without needing to regain her memories.**"

"Wait a minute . . ." said Ichigo, making Shadobisuto's head snap towards him.

"Why wouldn't you want her to remember? We're all her friends here, and she's been carrying on all these years thinking she had no one. You don't want her to think that she still never had anyone this whole time, do you?" he asked. It was weird enough that the Zanpakuto wouldn't let Shizuko remember anything about her powers, but didn't a Zanpakuto want what was best for its shinigami? Why would she knowingly isolate Shizuko like that?

"**I have my reasons. To be frank, I think it would be best if she doesn't remember everything.**" There was no malice in her tone, but that didn't stop irritating certain people surrounding her.

"Why do you think that?" asked Hiyori, enraged, "She's being chased down by the same guy and she's been pursued by hollows countless times and she didn't know what to do! Don't you think she's suffering without her memories?"

"**She'll suffer even more with them,**" she said in a biting tone. Hiyori flinched. Shinji's eyes widened. Shadobisuto didn't give anyone enough time to retort.

"**You guys want her to remember so that she'll stop treating you like strangers. I understand that you want to have some kind of happy reunion and pick up where everything had left off, but that can't happen.**" The more Shadobisuto spoke, the more speechless Shinji became. Just what had happened during the past 100 years to Shizuko that her Zanpakuto will refuse to cooperate with old comrades?

"You say you understand, yet you still won't explain your actions entirely. Why keep all of this from her?" said Ichigo sternly. He wasn't about to let the shadow go off until she explained everything.

"**Because it will be damaging to her mental health if she were to somehow break the seal out of curiosity of what her memories are. And her physical health will follow on the decline. You want your friend back. I want her to be happy and safe. We can't have it both ways here.**" And the biting tone was back. It was clear that the wolf only saw one real option out of the two. Everyone was silent as they took in what Shadobisuto said.

"If you don't want her to remember, then why did you let her come back here?" asked Shinji. This Zanpakuto was too smart to have let this slipup happen. He could tell just from the conversation he was having with the shadow.

"**There wasn't a choice this time. When we moved to a different town, I made sure she picked one that was as far away from here as possible. But that bastard Aizen had blocked all of our other exits when he found us. He led us here,**" admitted the shadow. She seemed to have resented Aizen for that tactic.

"Why would Aizen purposefully chase Shizuko here?" asked Rose, "What good would it do to lead her here if there was the chance we would stop him from catching her?" The Zanpakuto's blue eyes stared at Rose for a moment before staring back at the ground.

"**My guess is that, with everyone else who is involved with him here, it was to keep all of the players in the war in one area. It would make it easier to keep track of them all. It's what I would try to do, anyway.**"

"So he doesn't mean to capture her?" asked Hachi. Shadobisuto shook her head.

"**No, I'm sure he's going to send someone to collect her again. But he must have other things he needs to do if he wants to keep a better track of a soul that tends to wander from place to place. After all, everyone is preparing for the war.**" Silence followed again. No one knew what to say that could sway the shadow's mind so that she would tell them how to break the seal. Well, almost no one.

"What if Aizen was taken care of? With him out of the way, would you let us restore Shizuko's memory?" asked Shinji. Aizen was the cause of all of this. The solution was in the problem. Surely whatever Shizuko went through would start going through a healing process upon learning of Aizen's demise. It was one last chance to get the Zanpakuto to change her mind about telling them about the seal.

Unfortunately, it didn't go that well.

"**No.**" Somehow, he was only mildly surprised that the Zanpakuto still refused. She was as stubborn as her shinigami.

"Why not? Aizen is the cause of her distress, right? So why still keep her in the dark afterwards? Ignorance can't really be the answer to all of this, can it?" asked Ichigo.

"**That is incorrect.**" Ichigo blinked in surprise.

"What is incorrect?"

"**Aizen is not the direct cause of her suffering. His role is actually smaller than you would think.**"

"Then what is her problem? We can't help if you don't tell us!" demanded Shinji. He stood up now. He was fed-up of this selfish sword dictating how Shizuko was going to spend the rest of this war. The rest of her life! The shadow glared at him.

"**I'm not going to bother to explain to people what plagues her all the time. You wouldn't understand nor could you help her. And before you start to criticize me about how selfish I'm being, you should know that you're being just as selfish about why you want her to remember.**" Shinji stalled in his counter-argument at that last statement. The shadow took full advantage of his temporary silence.

"**Shizuko is not going to remember the past as long as I can help it. And we are not going to stay after this war. Once Aizen has been dealt with, we're leaving.**" The sudden announcement had registered to Mashiro before anyone else.

"HEY! You can't make her leave if she doesn't want to! And even if she won't remember us, why can't she stay! We can still be friends, stupid shadow!" yelled Mashiro. Shadobisuto sighed.

"**It won't do anyone any good if she stayed. You all will just remember how things used to be and mourn the loss. Shizuko's memories will try to spill out the more she's here, and you know how much pain that causes her. In the end, it is better for everyone if we just leave. It'll be less painful for everyone, at the very least her.**" The shadow got up from her haunches and started to walk off to where Shizuko was sitting out of earshot.

"**I will allow you to say goodbye, since you weren't able to last time. But that's the only thing I will grant you before we leave. I suggest you start cutting your ties with her before that, if you don't want to go through that much pain.**" They weren't able to stop the Zanpakuto from melting back into Shizuko's shadow, nor could they stop her words from ringing in their heads.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Why are you leaving so early? Don't you normally stay until late evening?" asked Toshiko as they made their trek back to Urahara's shop. Shizuko didn't say anything. Instead, she slightly picked up the pace, wanting the walk to end sooner.

"You know if you don't answer, I'll just kick your ass until you do," said Toshiko, already annoyed at the unusually quiet woman. Shizuko gave her a flat stare back.

"You know that I will prank you on a level Renji has yet to see if you do, right?"

"That won't stop me from kicking your ass now, so spill." Damn, Toshiko wasn't prone to thinking through the consequences of her actions. And technically what she said was true. The threat wouldn't stop her actions of now.

"I just got into a little . . . disagreement with them. That's all." That was the main reason she was leaving early. The second was because Shinji had more or less kicked her out after his talk with Shadobisuto. She didn't get what was wrong with everyone afterwards, but they wouldn't explain and she was still peeved at Shinji. In the end, she decided that she needed space from them.

"Doesn't sound like it. Otherwise you would be thinking of a prank for revenge and then be over it." Shizuko was surprised. For a lazy, short-tempered, violent shinigami, Toshiko was more perceptive than Shizuko wanted her to be at the moment.

"Just tell me now, while it's just the two of us. Or I'll bring it up again in front of Urahara and the others." And damn her for knowing how to get the prankster to talk.

"It's just a stupid little argument. They worry that I'm not thinking through my actions and that I'm going to get killed because of that." Toshiko raised an eyebrow at her.

"What brought that up?" she asked. Shizuko sighed.

"Well, when I ran out to help you, I didn't tell them anything about what I was doing. I acted on a moment's notice and they do not trust me enough to make good enough judgments. I have no idea where that over-protective attitude came from, either!" Shizuko threw up her hands in emphasis. She was expecting Toshiko to agree with her side on this.

"Well, did it occur to you that they remember you're still in training? I know a lot of newbies who overestimated themselves and went right into the middle of battle. I made sure that they went through a sparring session with me as soon as they left 4th division just to let the message sink in." Shizuko stared at her incredulously.

. . . Was this the same person who jumped into a fight with that Gin person without a second thought?

"My guess is that, since you're a newbie, you made them worry by jumping out into a fight without assessing your own level of strength."

". . . And how would you know that?" asked Shizuko slowly.

"I could tell when I saw those friends of yours that they care for you. More than I thought they would, for some reason. And after knowing you for about a week, I think you'll forgive them by tomorrow," said Toshiko, confidently

". . . So you're saying that you're ready to make up with Renji?" asked Shizuko. Toshiko's mood soured.

"Hell no! What brought that up? He's a jackass who treats me like I'm some delicate piece of glass sometimes!"

That was when Shizuko came up with the thought that the inability to self-reflect was a scary thing. Very scary. No wonder Ikkaku and Yumichika told horror stories about her attitude shortly after she arrived.

Shizuko blinked when she felt a rain drop on her nose. She looked up to see the rain clouds gathered above them.

"What is it?" asked Toshiko when Shizuko stopped walking. Shizuko looked a bit dazed for some reason.

". . . Nothing. It's just that the rain always makes me feel nostalgic about something." Toshiko frowned in confusion.

"Nostalgic about what?" Shizuko looked at her to answer . . . when she saw the arrancar standing right behind Toshiko.

**Again, sorry about the wait. I really need a better way to keep my Bleach muse from moving around so damn much. -_-'**

**And, of course, I end with another cliffhanger. I love writing them too much.**

**Anyway, I'm not completely sure as to how well this chapter came out, so reviews would be very much appreciated. With how close I am so a certain part in this story, I'm hoping that I'll be able to write out the next few chapters and update them sooner, but I still can't make any guarantees.**

**So, with all of that said and done, see ya!**


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